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The Reverse Side of the Medal: About the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the Beautification of the N2 in Cape Town

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Abstract

This paper aims to show the reverse side of the (football) medal. The N2 gateway project in Cape Town is presented, by government and media, as a ‘flagship’ project of the new Breaking New Ground strategy, to fight the housing backlog of 400,000 houses in the city. But I want to argue that the fast-tracking of the project has to be understood as a beautification strategy to prepare the city for 2010. Massive slum eradication and the construction of ‘beautiful formal housing opportunities’ between the airport and the mother city are becoming a painful reminder of the forced removals under the apartheid regime.

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Notes

  1. In South-African housing, “gap” housing refers to housing for a particular section of people in need of a house who are “too rich” to get a subsidies house and “too poor” to access a bank loan. In 2004, this considered people with an income between R2500 and R7500 a month (Gardner 2004). For a more elaborate report on this situation I refer to Gardner, D.. Sharpening the Focus: A New Look at South Africa's Housing Strategy. Paper presented at the Housing Finance Resource Programme (Gardner 2004).

  2. Development Action Group

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Acknowledgements

The author wishes to acknowledge the Flemish Inter-University Council of Belgium (VLIR–IUC) for their financial support, which helped to realise this research and the referees for their helpful notes and critiques.

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  1. Department of Architecture Sint-Lucas, Hogeschool voor Wetenschappen en Kunst, Brussels, Belgium

    Caroline Newton

  2. Departement Industriële Wetenschappen en Technologie, Erasmus Hogeschool Brussel, Brussels, Belgium

    Caroline Newton

  3. Research Group Urban Planning, Department of Engineering Sciences, Hogeschool Gent, Ghent, Belgium

    Caroline Newton

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Correspondence to Caroline Newton.

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Newton, C. The Reverse Side of the Medal: About the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the Beautification of the N2 in Cape Town. Urban Forum 20, 93–108 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-009-9048-y

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