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Community Governance in Urban South Africa: Spaces of Political Contestation and Coalition

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Abstract

This paper deploys the concept of community governance in problematising the relationships between community-based organisations which generate participation in decision making at local or neighbourhood levels. I integrate Bourdieu’s “field theory” with the concept of “nodal governance”; conceptualising community governance as constituting a ‘field of local power politics’ in which community-based organisations enrol and contest each other. These organisations enrol and contest each other as they struggle for political legitimacy, control of knowledge and access to economic resources and power. It is against a backdrop characterised by the contestation–coalition oxymoron that I raise questions about the (anti-)democratic dynamics between and within participation-generating community-based organisations. This analysis is embedded in a case study of community politics in Yeoville, Johannesburg.

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Notes

  1. WCRB stands for Ward Committee Resource Book and WLG stands for White Paper on Local Government.

  2. It is because of the need to conceptualise the neighbourhood as a ‘socio-spatial entity’ and ‘political community’ that I chose to use the concept of ‘community governance’ to explore political relationships within and between participation-generating community organisations.

  3. This paper is a product of my ongoing Ph.D. research partly funded by the Volkswagen Foundation and integrated into Yeoville Studio, which is an initiative of the School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand; where a number of joint research initiatives are being developed.

  4. Hijacked houses are those houses that have been unlawfully occupied and are under the unlawful control of an individual or group without the consent or approval of the owner.

  5. RDP houses are houses built under the National Housing Subsidies Scheme in South Africa, and are commonly named after the South African government’s Reconstruction and Development Plan (RDP).

  6. These are buildings that have been neglected by owners. The problem of bad and abandoned buildings in Yeoville is compounded by the fact that several of them are classified by some members of the community as “hijacked buildings”.

  7. YSF General Meeting, 19 August 2010

  8. Zack et al. (2010: 9) define “bad buildings” as buildings which were once sound in physical structure, management, use and occupancy, but have become dysfunctional in one or more ways. Such buildings do not meet minimum requirements as stipulated in municipal by-laws and are a threat to the health and safety of occupants, neighbouring buildings and the environment (Zack et al. 2010: 9).

  9. I wish to thank Dr. Claire Benit-Gbaffou for assistance in developing this point.

  10. YBCEC is a pressure and advocacy created in November 2010. This advocacy group attempts to raise community awareness and lobby government agencies around community grievances pertaining to the commonly disdained but continuous granting of liquor licenses to liquor outlets, operation of illegal liquour outlets and rezoning of buildings among other challenges in Yeoville and Bellevue.

  11. ANC stand for African National Congress; DA stands for Democratic Alliance and COPE stands for Congress of the People.

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  1. School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Obvious Katsaura

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Correspondence to Obvious Katsaura.

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I wish to express my gratitude to Dr. Claire Benit-Gbaffou for the constructive criticism and mentorship that aided the refinement of this work. Many thanks also go to the rest of members of the Voices of the Poor in Urban Governance Research Network (CORUS) including Prof. Laurence Piper, Dr. Sophie Oldfield, Dr. Paula Meth, Dr. Luke Sinwell, Prof. Gervais-Lambony, Prof. Alan Mabin and the entire team for academic support. I also extend my deep gratitude to Urban Forum peer reviewers who did great work reviewing this work.

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Katsaura, O. Community Governance in Urban South Africa: Spaces of Political Contestation and Coalition. Urban Forum 23, 319–342 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-011-9138-5

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