Inequality in urban development and distribution of basic services

Inequality in urban development and distribution of basic services

Introduction The three books I read offered unique insight into urban development or re-development in the transition from apartheid to post-apartheid in South Africa, more especially the city of Johannesburg and its surrounding townships, and the inequalities thereof. This essay summarizes some of the topics covered both directly and indirectly in the books, linking them under the theme of urban development post-apartheid.

Inequality became a class issue Theories of urbanization have often placed Johannesburg as the ‘spatial embodiment of unequal economic relations and segregationist policies”(Sarah Nuttal & Achille Mbhebhe, 2001). In their collection titled Johannesburg – The elusive Metropolis different contributors reassess their experiences of post-apartheid Joburg as a city. From some of these compilations, one realizes how although policies that segregated people by race were brought down or taken away post-apartheid, another form of segregation came into effect – a separation between class.

Experiences of urban spaces are different for different people from different classes. The use of space in urban contexts by these different classes differs too. This contributes to the present segregation within urban contexts. The different classes group themselves, voluntarily and involuntarily within their urban context.

Advantaged and Disadvantaged Jeremy Seekings and Nicoli Natrass, in their book Race, Class and Inequality in South Africa, further investigate this theory that inequality has moved, post-apartheid, from the issue of race to the issue of class. They argue that although there was a formal deracialization of public policy, this has had no effect on the poor and the rich. The poor still continue in their disadvantaged state and the rich remain advantaged, regardless of their race. Their writings focus more on the socio-economic issues which link to Patrick Bond’s collections of essays on South Africa’s new urban crisis, titled Cities of gold; Townships of coal.

Figure 1. Cover of Patrick Bond’s Cities of gold; Townships of coal.

The image portrayed on the cover of Bond’s book indirectly gives unique insight into the two different extremes – rich and poor. The city of Johannesburg is very often portrayed – especially through photographs – from a perspective where almost no one can see its inner complexities.

Johannesburg went through a period of massive degeneration towards the end of apartheid and the beginning of post-apartheid, faced with a time where people from previously disadvantaged positions saw opportunity to become advantaged in the city migrated from townships outside the cities into the more advantaged parts of the city. With their migration into the city, those who were advantaged removed themselves from the inner city as it started experiencing a lot of decay.

The images below depict a township fabric and what the inner city, although it was built with different materials, became, when the disadvantaged came into the city. They took with them their disadvantaged states in their ways of living and in terms of service delivery and economic freedom.

Figure 2. A photograph of the cover of Bond’s book depicting a township urban fabric, alongside a photograph showing the conditions of the disadvantaged within the city fabric. By author

Similarly , those who were advantaged, when moving out of the city because of the decay, still moved with their advantaged state. Although being out of the city – in suburbs outside of the inner city, just as townships are outside the city – they’re still advantaged, whereas those who came into the city to find advantage still remain disadvantaged even though they’re in the city.

Conclusion Although South Africa has moved on from its previous apartheid, people, in the way they organize themselves or are organized spatially and in the appearance of their urban context (cities, suburbs or townships) that they live in, still create different apartheids among themselves.

References Nuttal, S & Mbhebhe, A. 2001. Johannesburg: The Elusive Metropolis. Duke University Press Seekings, J & Natrass, N. 2007. Classs, Race and Inequality in South Africa. Yale University Press Bond, P. 2000. Cities of Gold, Townships of Coal: Essays on South Africa’s New Urban Crisis. Africa World Press