The Role of Mobility in Disentangling Socio-Spatial Legacies of the Post-Apartheid State: The Case of Young Residents of Informal Settlements in Cape Town, SA – Ana Holschuh
Outstanding Thesis Award, 2019-2020
Slum Dweller’s International meeting & Know Your City TV Cape Town youth filming
“It is now widely acknowledged in urban sociology that space reflects and reinforces inequality. Nowhere is this more obviously true and trenchant than in South Africa, where the social, economic and racial divisions of apartheid were spatially constructed.”
– Daniel Schensul and Patrick Heller
Abstract
The structural segregation institutionalized under Apartheid in 1948 excluded Black Africans from being able to access the center of the city, and today’s dense informal settlements continue to showcase the legacies of apartheid-era city planning laws. Even though Apartheid was abolished 25 years ago, the impact it created through spatial exclusion against poor Black Africans remains alive today. Since such individuals live the furthest away from the city, access to public transport is key to move throughout the urban area, and access vital centers of employment, health, and education. In Cape Town, informal taxis are the main mode of transport for slum dwellers, as showcased by this investigation’s case study of five young slum dwellers. Through participant observation, interviews, and the journals of five youth that form part of a media collective in Cape Town, Know Your City TV, this investigation seeks to shed light on how young community members of various informal settlements across the urban area view the current transport system they interact with on a daily basis. Through the different lenses of affordability, accessibility, safety, and reliability, this investigation reflects on how the public transport system could evolve to better serve the needs of the urban poor and create a more equitable access to the city.