Contemporary South African Urbanization Dynamics

Abstract The paper provides an overview of urbanization patterns and trends in the current era in South Africa, focusing in particular on the key dynamics and driving forces underlying migration and urbanization. It considers overall demographic trends with regard to migration and urbanization, and points to some of the difficulties with data, and with the analysis of trends and patterns. The paper explores the changing rural context and dynamics, and some of the significant processes in this context: large-scale displacement of black people off farms, the impact of land reform, and conditions in the former homeland areas. Circular migration continues to be an important way in which households in rural areas survive, but some are unable to move, and are falling out of these networks. International migration—the consequence of both conditions in the home country and the draw of the South African economy— is another significant process fuelling mainly urban growth. The paper demonstrates the importance of cities in terms of economic growth and employment, and thus their attractiveness to migrants. Continuing migration to cities is of course a challenge fo

Is There Such a Thing as a Post-apartheid City?

In an introductory section, this paper considers briefly the achievements and problems of urban governance in post-apartheid South Africa through an assessment of three categories: administrative reform, developmental issues and conflicts over service delivery issues. It then goes on to assess continuity and change in South African cities. Continuity is the norm in understanding urban history with change understood as a series of accretions and as a layering of features, unless major economic shifts or revolutionary political shifts are in place. Using the example of Durban, a series of changes is highlighted, which fit into what the deracialized growth path allows and encourages. The paper argues that thus far, the ANC government has shown little capacity or desire to discipline capital along the lines suggested, for instance, by the reconstruction and development programme's section on public transport. Larger changes are thus limited by the predilections and established discourses of the business world and the absence of more dynamic and structured public intervention

Vertical Decentralisation and Urban Service Delivery in South Africa: Does Politics Matter?

Focusing on the case of South Africa, this study examines how decentralisation policies and inter-party politics have affected urban service- delivery responsibilities and resources. Service delivery does not appear to be worse off in Cape Town than in Johannesburg, even though the former is controlled by the opposition Democratic Alliance. While there have been political attempts to undermine the authority of its officials, the fiscal elements are protected by a relatively strong and well-managed department of finance. Consequently, both donors and the national government steer money towards Cape Town because they know it can deliver on its obligations

The State of South African Cities a Decade after Democracy

a vision of an inclusive non-racial city in which democracy is stable and development flourishes. But the 2004 report is different from preceding urban policy statements in a number of critical respects, not least that it is not a formal statement of government. In part, the relative autonomy of the Report’s sponsor, the South African Cities Network (a quango of state and non-state affiliates), explains its divergent analytical point of departure in the assessment of the state of the cities 10 years after democracy. The 2004 report is premised on the notion that changing the racial pattern of inequality hinges on systematic responses to the material forces, demographic, economic, environmental and institutional, that shaped the inherited apartheid city form. The 2004 report is also different from earlier government policy positions in that it argues that urban development is not just a site of national reconstruction and development, but that the urban question lies at the heart of achieving the national vision of a productive, democratic and non-racial society based on a vision of sustainable human settlements

Cultural weapons: traditions, inventions and the transition to democratic governance in metropolitan Durban

Traditional leaders have a formal role in South Africa's post-apartheid local government and, in some cities in the country-notably in KwaZulu-Natal-their presence has presented some important political challenges. This paper explores the relationship between longstanding institutional arrangements which support chiefdoms and traditional authority control over land and development, and the emerging democratic local government in the municipality of eThekwini, which covers the Greater Durban Region. Partly a response to a situation of entrenched conflict, the inclusion of amakhosi, or traditional leaders, in local governance structures varies across different areas in the city. The potential for competition between elected councillors and amakhosi remains high and there are on-going disputes about their roles. Municipal spending has been directed to encouraging the participation of amakhosi in the formal systems of local government and, in places, the amakhosi themselves have been significant agents of urban development. The continuing popular support for traditional leaders is explored and the consequences of this for both democracy and for development are considered. The paper suggests that hybrid forms of political identity, incorporating both formal democracies and lively traditions, are emerging and suggests that urban political culture and institutions have been transformed not only at the ballot box or through development processes, but through actions, beliefs and practices of residents