Mbiba, Beacon

Mphambukeli, Thulisile N.

Sempijja, Norman

Zondi, Siphamandla

Oxford Brookes University: RADAR

TYPE EditorialPUBLISHED 03 May 2023DOI 10.3389/frsc.2023.1175632OPEN ACCESSEDITED AND REVIEWED BYJianquan Cheng,Manchester Metropolitan University,United Kingdom*CORRESPONDENCEThulisile N. Mphambukelitmphambukeli@uj.ac.zaRECEIVED 27 February 2023ACCEPTED 06 April 2023PUBLISHED 03 May 2023CITATIONMphambukeli TN, Mbiba B, Zondi S andSempijja N (2023) Editorial: Urban (in)securityand social justice in post-colonies.Front. Sustain. Cities 5:1175632.doi: 10.3389/frsc.2023.1175632COPYRIGHT© 2023 Mphambukeli, Mbiba, Zondi andSempijja. This is an open-access articledistributed under the terms of the CreativeCommons Attribution License (CC BY). The use,distribution or reproduction in other forums ispermitted, provided the original author(s) andthe copyright owner(s) are credited and thatthe original publication in this journal is cited, inaccordance with accepted academic practice.No use, distribution or reproduction ispermitted which does not comply with theseterms.Editorial: Urban (in)security andsocial justice in post-coloniesThulisile N. Mphambukeli1*, Beacon Mbiba2, Siphamandla Zondi1and Norman Sempijja31Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Institute for Pan African Thought and Conversation,University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development,Faculty of Technology, Design and Environment, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom,3Faculty of Governance, Economics and Social Sciences, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Rabat,MoroccoKEYWORDS(in)security, post-colonial, urban, social justice, AfricaEditorial on the Research TopicUrban (in)security and social justice in post-coloniesThe articles in this collection draw on local experiences and practices to conceptualizeand unpack the multi-dimensional nature of urban insecurity and injustice in Africa’s post-colonies. They deepen the understanding of urban informality, infrastructure violence, andthe enduring presence of coloniality. In these articles, insecurity is best understood from avulnerability point of view. Following UN-HABITAT (2007), vulnerability is the likelihoodthat an entity (individual, household, community, firm, city, or country) will suffer negativeconsequences as a result of an occurrence (risk event) and the inability to cope effectivelywith such a risk event and its consequences. The nature of risk events or shocks and theassociated vulnerabilities can be distinguished into either natural (climatic, environmental,and diseases) or human-made (economic crisis, socio-political conflicts, and wars). Articlesin this collection focus on human-made or constructed vulnerabilities and insecurities.Eyita-Okon argues that urban insecurities should be understood in the context ofAfrica’s failure to plan, invest, and capture the benefits of rapid urbanization. Despite itsbest efforts and aspirations as illustrated in initiatives, such as the New Partnership forAfrica (NEPAD), African Union Agenda 2063, and commitments to SDGs, the continentremains a global economic periphery where the transformative role of cities is yet tomaterialize. Living in slums and informality characterizes the everyday lives of many urbanresidents. Illustrated with the Zimbabwe case, informality is considered a manifestationof the mainstream economy’s failure to accommodate all those who need decent workor employment (Ndawana), housing (Matamanda and Mphambukeli), and services. Toaddress their livelihoods predicament, marginalized and poor urban residents resort toillegal/informal street trading or vending. Ndawana re-confirms how political parties ab(use)informal street traders/vendors for political gain. The study argues that elites and theruling party particularly take a vacillating or ambivalent approach that treats the vendorsas political assets or liabilities depending on prevailing circumstances. Consequently, thereis no investment in lasting solutions with such ambivalence reinforcing spatial injustices andinsecurity of livelihoods.Matamanda and Mphambukeli take an informal settlement-wide approach to deepenour understanding of infrastructure violence. Following Rodgers and O’Neill (2012) andDesai (2018), infrastructure violence occurs when the design and provision of infrastructureand services are absent, inadequate, or reproduce and replicates inadequacies, everydayinjustices, burdens, inequalities, tensions, and conflicts. The lack of water and sanitation,transport services, police stations street lighting, and health and education infrastructureFrontiers in SustainableCities 01 frontiersin.orgMphambukeli et al. 10.3389/frsc.2023.1175632exposes residents to harm. Ironically, the conditions force someresidents to engage in further criminal activities to survive. Avicious cycle sets in where an atmosphere of fear dominatesthese neighborhoods due to perceptions and experiences of crime,robbery, rapes, thefts, domestic violence, etc. The gendered natureof insecurity runs through these experiences.A total of five studies focus on South Africa whereinfrastructure injustice and a climate of urban fear and organizedcrimes are more pronounced. COVID-19 exacerbated thestructural inequities and infrastructure violence in urban SouthAfrica. Separately, Mongale and Check argue that under conditionsof structural poverty and resultant frustration, urban communityviolence, rioting, and looting take place at the slightest provocation.Moreover, as illustrated in the July 2021 urban riots, there is aconflation of issues and actors, combining criminality and genuinepolitical protest. Unfortunately, the major victims of this violenceand looting are the very poor. The burden of this on poor migrantsis exhibited in xenophobic attacks often aided by national politicalleaders. Sempijja and Mongale explore this “blaming the other”to underline similarities between the Ugandan–Asian debacleof 1972 and ongoing xenophobia against African immigrants inSouth Africa.Muswede refocusses the debate on how the poor, marginalized,and vulnerable illegal African immigrants have used social mediatechnologies to mitigate xenophobic attacks, to also offer each otherpost-violence emotional and psychological support, share adaptivestrategies, and mobilize resources to support victims. These actionsunderscore the role of agency and social capital in the contextof vulnerability. However, this agency offers no long-term relief.Only by addressing the structural factors, will it become possible todeal comprehensively with these challenges. In contrast Muswedeand Chakwizira focuses on how the upper classes reconfigure theirspaces and craft community structures to respond to real andperceived crime and insecurities in a small new town. As with thepoor African immigrants, the positive outcomes of reconfiguredlandscapes are considered limited. Long-term and comprehensivesecurity will require restructuring of the political economy overall.States in Africa are aware of the infrastructure violence andthe need to invest in critical economic infrastructure (roads andrail, dams, and electricity generation) (AfDB, 2018) to grow theireconomies. However, the informal livelihoods and tenure of thepoor are at risk of the development impacts of state initiatives toaddress the infrastructure deficits. In the last study, Mbiba suggestsa combined livelihood model for a social–spatial and historicalcomparative understanding of the impacts and opportunities theseinitiatives can bring.Collectively, the articles provide rich empirical insights into thegravity of urban insecurity facing Southern Africa in particular.This is a region where humans rather than natural shocks havean overbearing impact on the security of persons and livelihoods.The articles are written with a “post-colony” label. However,the nature and meaning of this post-colony were not examinedexplicitly. Doing so would add the vital critique and activismcurrently epitomized in the Economic Freedom Fighters of SouthAfrica. It seems the prevailing systemic economic relations ofcolonial times have not gone away but have been entrenched.There is also a political history debate that can extend fromthese articles. To what extent is the failure to address urbaninsecurity linked to the dominantly rural-focused ideologies ofAfrica’s liberation movements? Put differently, regarding urbanareas, what was the vision of the liberation movements andtorch bearers (such as Julius Nyerere, Samara Machel, RobertSobukwe, and Steve Biko)? And what would they say about theurban insecurity in Africa today? Moreover, there is a plethora of“smart city” approaches coming on board. What is their efficacygiven the enduring structural inequalities in urban Africa andunequal socioeconomic pathways worldwide? Finally, the articleshave extended the use of concepts of informality and inequality,infrastructural violence, space reconfiguration, livelihoods, andvulnerability. In this respect, they offer material for any pointersto avenues for further comparative research globally.Author contributionsThis editorial was made possible by the contribution of authorswho participated in the review of the submitted and the subsequentfinalization and publication of all eight articles. All authorscontributed to the article and approved the submitted version.Conflict of interestThe authors declare that the research was conducted in theabsence of any commercial or financial relationships that could beconstrued as a potential conflict of interest.Publisher’s noteAll claims expressed in this article are solely those of theauthors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliatedorganizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and thereviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, orclaim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed orendorsed by the publisher.ReferencesAfDB (2018). Africa’s infrastructure: great potential but little impact on inclusivegrowth. Chapter 3 in Africa Economic Outlook, 2018. The African DevelopmentBank (AfDB). Available online at: https://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Publications/African_Economic_Outlook_2018_-_EN.pdf (accessedFebruary 24, 2023).Desai, R. (2018). Urban planning, water provisioning and infrastructure violence atpublic housing resettlement sites in Ahmedabad, India.Water Altern. 11, 86–105.Rodgers, D., and O’Neill, B. (2012). Infrastructural violence: Introductionto the special issue. Ethnography 13, 401–412. doi: 10.1177/1466138111435738UN-HABITAT (2007). Enhancing urban safety and security.Global Report on Human Settlements 2007. Nairobi: United NationsHABITAT.Frontiers in SustainableCities 02 frontiersin.org

Urban (in)security and social justice in post colonies

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