Urbanisation has been a contentious process in South Africa for more than a century. It has
posed dilemmas for successive political regimes and resulted in draconian efforts to contain
and control it in pursuit of racial domination and segregation. Until 1994, state restrictions on
population movement and forced removals had egregious impacts on settlement patterns and
living standards. A widening economic gap between urban and rural areas was one of the
outcomes, creating pent-up migratory pressures. A highly segregated urban form was another
effect, generating a variety of harmful social, economic and environmental consequences.
Fractured cities create poverty traps on the periphery, favour road-based private transport and
undermine the economic advantages normally associated with dense agglomerations. South
African cities are among the most unequal and visibly divided in the world.
The institutionalised iniquities of apartheid were abolished two decades ago when a
democratic Government committed to universal human rights and redistributive social
policies was elected. Spatial patterns have not received much overt attention because of the
desire to treat different places even-handedly and because territorial issues are politically
sensitive and complicated to address. There has been no explicit national framework to tackle
spatial disparities and distortions, nor has there been a deliberate policy towards migration
and the management of urbanisation. This neutral stance has avoided the serious social
damage of the past, but relatively little has been done positively to help migrant populations
to overcome poverty or to rectify the spatial legacy of segregation. Consequently, the
inequitable form of urban settlements has been reproduced rather than reshaped. Informal
housing continues to grow in inhospitable locations as people leave rural areas and try to
access urban opportunities. The Government has also not promoted economic development in
cities and investment in their infrastructure as vigorously as in many other countries. The
situation is beginning to change as urban challenges and opportunities move ineluctably up
the national agenda.
The purpose of this chapter is to review the historical trajectory of urbanisation and its
implications for contemporary South African society. There is a particular focus on the
triangular relationship among urbanisation, economic development and social inequality
because this has been an enduring bone of contention in government policy towards cities.
The chapter is organised in essentially in two parts: The first discusses the controversial
history of urban growth and the way it was shaped by state policy. The second explores the
impact of this inheritance on current patterns of poverty and development and the challenges
involved in reversing this legacy to create more equitable and efficient cities.