Between Zevenfontein and Hillbrow: Alternatives for South African urban planning

Abstract

Recent events on the periphery and in the inner cities of the central Witwatersrand and other metropolitan areas point to great changes under way in the process of urban expansion in South Africa. For several decades the highly controlled system of private suburban development accounted for most geographical extension of our cities, with public development of low- income black areas making up much of the rest. But conflict over the residen­tial place of poorer citizens, as in the Zevenfontein-Chartwell-Diepsloot-Bloubosrand saga, indicates that the historical processes of expansion may not persist for much longer.