Lecture 2-3: Urban Past
Wednesday, 14 February 2024 10:11
Today's Topics: Homework:
• First People in Southern Africa • Chapter 1&3
• First Europeans to South Africa
• Colonial city pre-1910
• Segregation City 1911-1950
• 1948 - Watershed Year
Themes:
• Reading the Landscape
• Our Urban Laboratories
• Understanding of how we got to where
we are today and how we should move
forward
• Risk of repeating injustices of the past
Lecture Notes:
First Peoples in Southern Africa:
• Earliest South Africans were the hunter-gatherer San and the pastoral Khoekhoe, which
are collectively the Khoisan.
• Bantu-speaking communities reached southern Africa from the Congo basin by the early
centuries AD.
• Forcing the original inhabitants of the region to move to more arid areas.
• Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi, and Ndebele – eastern coast
• Sotho–Tswana peoples (Tswana, Pedi, and Sotho) - interior on the plateau (Highlands)
• Today's Venda, Lemba, and Tsonga peoples - north-eastern areas of present-day South
Africa.
First Europeans to South Africa
• Bartolomeu Diaz – 1488
• Vasco da Gama – 1497
• Jan van Riebeeck – 1652 (establish Dutch Cape Colony)
• French Hugenotes – 1688
• British settlers – 1820
• Great Trek (Voortrekkers - Dutch leaving British colony)
Colonial City Pre-1910
GEO 323 Page 1
, • Cities developed from European town planning principles
• Human settlements created for whites by whites idea
• Core-periphery relationship (class-racial segregation)
• Origin of location and single sex hostels
• 1847 – Cape colonial government promulgated regulations for establishments of separate
locations close to existing white towns
• Before 1900 Free State and Transvaal Boer republics also introduced regulations
• Natal effected influx control measures (to prevent permanent black urbanization)
Segregation City 1911-1950
• Land Act (1913 and 1936) – restricting and limiting black land ownership (limiting political
rights) to reserves
• Act prohibited black people purchasing land outside the reserves (except in the Cape)
• 1936 amendment took away rights to purchase in Cape and removed from multi-racial
voters roll
• Stallard Commission 1922 (Stallardism)–
• “the native should only be allowed to enter the urban areas, which are essentially the white
man’s creation, when he is willing to enter and minister to the needs of the white man, and
should depart therefrom when he ceases so to minister”
• 1923 Natives Urban Areas Act – local authorities required to establish separate locations
for blacks; to exercise rudimentary control over migration; to house them
• Bigger cities acted immediately, smaller towns feared financial costs –by 1937 most
locations registered
• * Note: By 1948 – system of physical (spatial) separation firmly in place
1948 - Watershed Year
• Post-world war II period – black workers on mines - rapid influx
• 1948 election (whites-only)
• The United Party (UP) and the National Party (NP) presented voters with differing answers
to questions relating to racial integration in South Africa.
• The UP were in favour of a pragmatic approach, arguing that racial integration was
inevitable and that the government should thus relax regulations which sought to prevent
black people from moving into urban areas
• NP won election on ‘swart gevaar’ (black danger) election campaign
GEO 323 Page 2
,Lecture 4: The Apartheid City and Beyond
Wednesday, 21 February 2024 10:12
Today's Topics: Homework:
• The Apartheid City • Chapter 3
• 3 geographical levels of apartheid • Additional: Chapter 1
legislation
• The journey to democracy
• Have we moved beyond the apartheid
city?
Themes:
• Reading the landscape
• Understanding of how we got here and
how we move forward
• Spatial elements
Lecture Notes:
• In many ways, apartheid was a geographical exercise
The Apartheid City
• 1948 - watershed year
• Apartheid legislation policy from 1948
• Rational for apartheid:
○ "The presumption that contact between racial groups will lead to friction and that harmonious
relations can only be achieved by minimising points of contact"
○ Separation in fear of a 'race war'
Three Geographical/Spatial Levels of Apartheid Legislation
• Macro-level
○ Grand apartheid
▪ Promotion of Black Self-Government Act 1959
• Meso-level
○ Urban apartheid
▪ Group Areas Act 1950
• Micro-level
○ Petty Apartheid
▪ Separate Amenities Act 1953
• Other draconian legislation
○ Immorality Act 1950
○ Population Registration Act 1950
▪ In turn decided where you would live
Macro-level
• Focus on national level space
○ Bantustan/Homelands
▪ Not great land; very isolated or desolate
▪ Government allowed own traditions and rules between areas as long as they followed
rules ("divide and rule")
Ethnic Cities: 1960-1985
• Homeland system
○ Development of a city system
• Commuting distance
○ Dormitory towns
• Growth pole economic policy (industrial decentralisation)
Meso-Level
• 'Urban Apartheid'
• Group Areas Act (1950)
○ Assigned racial groups to different residential and business sections in urban areas in a
system of urban apartheid (repealed in 1991)
• In collaboration with Population Registration Act to decide who lived in what areas
Forced removal
• 1960 to 1983, the apartheid government forcibly moved 3.5 million black South Africans
• One of the largest mass removals of people in modern history
Group Areas act
• Prevented people from purchasing or selling property between racial groups
• Limited to living in certain urban spaces
• Urban areas divided into zones based on racial groupings
• Central urban areas deemed attractive to live in were designated as white-only zones
GEO 323 Page 3
, • Central urban areas deemed attractive to live in were designated as white-only zones
• Areas further away from suburbs were zoned for use by black, coloured and people of Asian
heritage
Surveillance and control
• Soweto
○ 1.5 million people and 4 access points
○ Nearby military and airbases
○ Street pattern was radial with open nodes
▪ Separated people in case of violent outbreak
○ Limited spaces for people to gather
▪ Prevented people from communicating about their environments
○ High mast lighting
▪ Made sure people could not get together and plan anything suspicious
○ Pass documents
▪ Preventable by living with white families in domestic quarters
▪ Was a sign of protest to burn
Apartheid city: 1986-1990
• By 1985:
○ Residential segregation
▪ 90% urbanities residing in own group
areas
▪ Commercial segregation firmly in place
○ In 1986:
▪ Scrapping of influx control
▪ State of emergency declared
• Continued political pressure, urban violence, sanctions, economic decline
• Inner city white flight
○ Desegregation (grey areas)
• Rapid black urbanisation
○ Mushrooming of squatter and informal settlements
Onward
• 1991 - scrapped of major apartheid legislation
○ Country bankrupt and overspending on surveillance
○ Lots of protests ongoing creating tension and unrest
• Release of Mandela
• CODESA negotiations
○ Apartheid government, Mandela and groups of freedom fighters came together and had
extensive talks about moving forward
▪ Constitution was created, provinces were created, decisions of capital cities were made
• Constitution
• Democratic elections
○ Mandela was voted President and F.W. De Klerk was Deputy
• RDP, GEAR etc.
Have We Moved Beyond the Apartheid City?
• Economic inequality has increased since the arrival of South Africa’s democracy in 1994 (World
Bank 2020)
• One of the highest Gini coefficients in the world
• The richest 10% of South Africans own 71% of the country’s wealth.
• In 2016 black Africans, who make up 75% of the population of South Africa, owned only 29% of the
land.
• The desegregation of the inner city and the limited desegregation of the inner white suburban areas.
• This type of desegregation of white suburban areas is primarily due to class and wealth instead of
race.
• The expansion of the former black townships on land adjacent to the former white suburbs
GEO 323 Page 4
Wednesday, 14 February 2024 10:11
Today's Topics: Homework:
• First People in Southern Africa • Chapter 1&3
• First Europeans to South Africa
• Colonial city pre-1910
• Segregation City 1911-1950
• 1948 - Watershed Year
Themes:
• Reading the Landscape
• Our Urban Laboratories
• Understanding of how we got to where
we are today and how we should move
forward
• Risk of repeating injustices of the past
Lecture Notes:
First Peoples in Southern Africa:
• Earliest South Africans were the hunter-gatherer San and the pastoral Khoekhoe, which
are collectively the Khoisan.
• Bantu-speaking communities reached southern Africa from the Congo basin by the early
centuries AD.
• Forcing the original inhabitants of the region to move to more arid areas.
• Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi, and Ndebele – eastern coast
• Sotho–Tswana peoples (Tswana, Pedi, and Sotho) - interior on the plateau (Highlands)
• Today's Venda, Lemba, and Tsonga peoples - north-eastern areas of present-day South
Africa.
First Europeans to South Africa
• Bartolomeu Diaz – 1488
• Vasco da Gama – 1497
• Jan van Riebeeck – 1652 (establish Dutch Cape Colony)
• French Hugenotes – 1688
• British settlers – 1820
• Great Trek (Voortrekkers - Dutch leaving British colony)
Colonial City Pre-1910
GEO 323 Page 1
, • Cities developed from European town planning principles
• Human settlements created for whites by whites idea
• Core-periphery relationship (class-racial segregation)
• Origin of location and single sex hostels
• 1847 – Cape colonial government promulgated regulations for establishments of separate
locations close to existing white towns
• Before 1900 Free State and Transvaal Boer republics also introduced regulations
• Natal effected influx control measures (to prevent permanent black urbanization)
Segregation City 1911-1950
• Land Act (1913 and 1936) – restricting and limiting black land ownership (limiting political
rights) to reserves
• Act prohibited black people purchasing land outside the reserves (except in the Cape)
• 1936 amendment took away rights to purchase in Cape and removed from multi-racial
voters roll
• Stallard Commission 1922 (Stallardism)–
• “the native should only be allowed to enter the urban areas, which are essentially the white
man’s creation, when he is willing to enter and minister to the needs of the white man, and
should depart therefrom when he ceases so to minister”
• 1923 Natives Urban Areas Act – local authorities required to establish separate locations
for blacks; to exercise rudimentary control over migration; to house them
• Bigger cities acted immediately, smaller towns feared financial costs –by 1937 most
locations registered
• * Note: By 1948 – system of physical (spatial) separation firmly in place
1948 - Watershed Year
• Post-world war II period – black workers on mines - rapid influx
• 1948 election (whites-only)
• The United Party (UP) and the National Party (NP) presented voters with differing answers
to questions relating to racial integration in South Africa.
• The UP were in favour of a pragmatic approach, arguing that racial integration was
inevitable and that the government should thus relax regulations which sought to prevent
black people from moving into urban areas
• NP won election on ‘swart gevaar’ (black danger) election campaign
GEO 323 Page 2
,Lecture 4: The Apartheid City and Beyond
Wednesday, 21 February 2024 10:12
Today's Topics: Homework:
• The Apartheid City • Chapter 3
• 3 geographical levels of apartheid • Additional: Chapter 1
legislation
• The journey to democracy
• Have we moved beyond the apartheid
city?
Themes:
• Reading the landscape
• Understanding of how we got here and
how we move forward
• Spatial elements
Lecture Notes:
• In many ways, apartheid was a geographical exercise
The Apartheid City
• 1948 - watershed year
• Apartheid legislation policy from 1948
• Rational for apartheid:
○ "The presumption that contact between racial groups will lead to friction and that harmonious
relations can only be achieved by minimising points of contact"
○ Separation in fear of a 'race war'
Three Geographical/Spatial Levels of Apartheid Legislation
• Macro-level
○ Grand apartheid
▪ Promotion of Black Self-Government Act 1959
• Meso-level
○ Urban apartheid
▪ Group Areas Act 1950
• Micro-level
○ Petty Apartheid
▪ Separate Amenities Act 1953
• Other draconian legislation
○ Immorality Act 1950
○ Population Registration Act 1950
▪ In turn decided where you would live
Macro-level
• Focus on national level space
○ Bantustan/Homelands
▪ Not great land; very isolated or desolate
▪ Government allowed own traditions and rules between areas as long as they followed
rules ("divide and rule")
Ethnic Cities: 1960-1985
• Homeland system
○ Development of a city system
• Commuting distance
○ Dormitory towns
• Growth pole economic policy (industrial decentralisation)
Meso-Level
• 'Urban Apartheid'
• Group Areas Act (1950)
○ Assigned racial groups to different residential and business sections in urban areas in a
system of urban apartheid (repealed in 1991)
• In collaboration with Population Registration Act to decide who lived in what areas
Forced removal
• 1960 to 1983, the apartheid government forcibly moved 3.5 million black South Africans
• One of the largest mass removals of people in modern history
Group Areas act
• Prevented people from purchasing or selling property between racial groups
• Limited to living in certain urban spaces
• Urban areas divided into zones based on racial groupings
• Central urban areas deemed attractive to live in were designated as white-only zones
GEO 323 Page 3
, • Central urban areas deemed attractive to live in were designated as white-only zones
• Areas further away from suburbs were zoned for use by black, coloured and people of Asian
heritage
Surveillance and control
• Soweto
○ 1.5 million people and 4 access points
○ Nearby military and airbases
○ Street pattern was radial with open nodes
▪ Separated people in case of violent outbreak
○ Limited spaces for people to gather
▪ Prevented people from communicating about their environments
○ High mast lighting
▪ Made sure people could not get together and plan anything suspicious
○ Pass documents
▪ Preventable by living with white families in domestic quarters
▪ Was a sign of protest to burn
Apartheid city: 1986-1990
• By 1985:
○ Residential segregation
▪ 90% urbanities residing in own group
areas
▪ Commercial segregation firmly in place
○ In 1986:
▪ Scrapping of influx control
▪ State of emergency declared
• Continued political pressure, urban violence, sanctions, economic decline
• Inner city white flight
○ Desegregation (grey areas)
• Rapid black urbanisation
○ Mushrooming of squatter and informal settlements
Onward
• 1991 - scrapped of major apartheid legislation
○ Country bankrupt and overspending on surveillance
○ Lots of protests ongoing creating tension and unrest
• Release of Mandela
• CODESA negotiations
○ Apartheid government, Mandela and groups of freedom fighters came together and had
extensive talks about moving forward
▪ Constitution was created, provinces were created, decisions of capital cities were made
• Constitution
• Democratic elections
○ Mandela was voted President and F.W. De Klerk was Deputy
• RDP, GEAR etc.
Have We Moved Beyond the Apartheid City?
• Economic inequality has increased since the arrival of South Africa’s democracy in 1994 (World
Bank 2020)
• One of the highest Gini coefficients in the world
• The richest 10% of South Africans own 71% of the country’s wealth.
• In 2016 black Africans, who make up 75% of the population of South Africa, owned only 29% of the
land.
• The desegregation of the inner city and the limited desegregation of the inner white suburban areas.
• This type of desegregation of white suburban areas is primarily due to class and wealth instead of
race.
• The expansion of the former black townships on land adjacent to the former white suburbs
GEO 323 Page 4
