25.06.2023

[Blog entry:] Dimensions of urban spatial transformation in South Africa

Richard Ballard, Principal Researcher, Gauteng City-Region Observatory

In South Africa, urban spatial transformation is frequently invoked but less often defined. it can take on different meanings. In broad terms, apartheid’s spatial engineering were integral to the injustices of the pre-democratic era, and so it follows that we need to configure our space differently in order to achieve justice. More specifically, however, spatial transformation can occur across five dimensions.

1. Racial desegregation of residential areas. The key driver of racial desegregation has been the deracialisation of middle and upper income occupation types (Crankshaw 2022). The fact that once-‘white’ parts of cities are now among the most racially mixed neighbourhoods can be interpreted as transformation insofar as white people no longer monopolise these advantageous neighbourhoods. And given that apartheid argued that people of different races could not share living environments because they would descend into conflict, the largely peaceful and normalised racial integration of middle and upper class suburbs does indeed stand as a remarkable transformation. Yet many, if not most, urban residents do not live in racially integrated neighbourhoods because they cannot afford to do so. The extent of racial desegregation is therefore governed by the unequal occupation and income structure of urban residents and uneven house prices.
2. Class desegregation of residential areas. While the racial desegregation of once racially exclusive neighbourhoods has been extensive, they remain relatively segregated by income (Ballard and Hamann 2021). Middle and upper class suburbs may be somewhat racially desegregated but the main housing stock is not accessible to anyone other than salaried professionals. Therefore while it might be said that white people no longer have a monopoly over advantageous neighbourhoods, middle and upper income earners do. In 2019, the City of Johannesburg implemented an inclusionary housing policy that obliges developers to include a component of more affordable units in their developments. The fact that this has not happened across the country and much earlier is a missed opportunity for those who argue that greater proximity between different incomes is desirable. State housing projects projects are premised on the desire to incorporate different income levels but only integrate welfare, semi-subsidized and entry level bonded houses. Some informal land occupations have reduced the proximity between rich and poor, although this has not produced integrated neighbourhoods per se, it has reduced the scale of segregation.
3. Densification. Spatial transformation has – in some policies – taken on the goal of densification. The Corridors of Freedom initiative in Johannesburg sought to densify along transit corridors. This initiative invoked dimensions 1 and 2, expressing a vision that rich and poor, black and white would live side by side (Ballard, Dittgen, Harrison and Todes 2017). It also invoked a broader desire to avoid the inefficiencies of urban sprawl. Densification-based strategies argue that more intensive use of land optimises bulk infrastructure, transport, and the opportunities generated through agglomeration effects. Mechanisms for containing urban sprawl include urban boundaries, although these are not always supported politically or enforced bureaucratically.
4. Investment in working class spaces. The fourth and fifth dimensions of spatial transformation do not – in themselves – prioritise the rearrangement of people across the urban scale (to create race or class integration or a densified core). They accept that the urban structure is path dependent and cannot easily be undone. The fourth dimension of spatial transformation is the investment in working class spaces where they are in order to ensure that they function better as living environments for those who live in them. The creation of ‘unicities’ (integrated municipalities) during the demarcation process of the 1990s allowed for revenue collected in wealthy areas to be invested in more deprived sections of the city. As a result townships such as Soweto have transformed markedly. The provision of new housing for working class occupants often alongside historical townships is a further form of investment. Working class residents have themselves invested extensively in their own accommodation and infrastructure. A key limit of this investment has been the extent of unemployment in working class neighbourhoods. The Gauteng Provincial Government has embarked on a drive to support township economies, for example by procuring goods and services in townships, in order to reduce the ‘spatial mismatch’ (between where people live and economic centres). However this this does not create new economic demand. Perhaps the most profound unravelling of investments in working class spaces is the collapse of electricity and water provision which deeply compromises the ability of these neighbourhoods to function as sites of social reproduction and economic production.
5. Connectivity. The priority for the fifth dimension of spatial transformation is to recreate improved connectivity so that any resident of the city may be able to get around it easily, cheaply and safely in order to look for jobs, go to work, or indeed go to school. It offers to bridge the spatial mismatch by opening up the greater city to all who live in it (in contrast to dimension four which seeks to localise opportunity in working class spaces). Extensive investment has occurred in bus rapid transit, metropolitan and regional bus services, rapid rail, passenger rail and taxi recapitalisation. Yet Gauteng has yet to achieve an integrated ticketing system and many transport systems are limping along at best. Freedom of movement is also hampered by the enclosure of neighbourhoods and entire suburbs through fortification.

Each of these dimensions of spatial transformation can contribute in specific ways to the achievement of spatial justice. However there is a limit to the extent to which spatial transformations can achieve spatial justice, and there is a limit to how much can be achieved under each of these five dimensions in the context of persistent acute income inequality. 

References

Crankshaw, Owen (2022) Urban Inequality: Theory Evidence and Method in Johannesburg. London: Zed.

Ballard, Richard, Romain Dittgen, Philip Harrison and Alison Todes (2017) ‘Megaprojects and Urban Visions: Johannesburg’s Corridors of Freedom and Modderfontein’ Transformation 75.

Richard Ballard and Christian Hamann (2021) ‘Socio-Economic Segregation and Income Inequality in the City of Johannesburg’ In Maarten van Ham, Tiit Tammaru, Ruta Ubarevičienė and Heleen Janssen (eds) Urban Socio-Economic Segregation and Income Inequality. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. pp 91-109.