Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The ‘Silent’ Closure of Urban Public Space in Cape Town: 1975 to 2004

  • Published:
Urban Forum Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This study seeks to show that the closure of urban public space by residents in a South African context is not a recent phenomenon and that successful citizen-driven urban public space closures have been a feature of the urban landscape before the rise of gated communities and monitored urban public space. The primary objective of the study was to analyse and investigate spatio-temporal tendencies relating to the citizen-driven privatisation of urban public space in Cape Town. This objective would be driven by the creation of a comprehensive database of provincially gazetted urban land closures dating from 7 February 1975 to 17 December 2004 within one of the six municipal substructure regions of Cape Town. The secondary objective, but by no means less important, is an identification and analysis of the reasons forwarded, practices employed and techniques utilised by individual citizen-driven applications in two distinctly diverse residential suburbs within the study area.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. This paper uses the terms white and black as was entrenched in apartheid legislation. For the purposes of this paper, black refers to the apartheid grouping of Black African, Coloured and Indian; except where individual groupings are used.

  2. Two pieces of legislation, which enacted and facilitated urban public space closures, were promulgated in 1974 and in 2003. The first was Ordinance 20 of 1974, promulgated on 29 November 1974 and published in The Province of the Cape of Good Hope Official gazette of 3 December 1974. All gazetted urban public space closures from 7 February 1975 to 30 January 2004 were enacted under Ordinance 20 of 1974, after which the City of Cape Town by-law relating to the management and administration of the City of Cape Town’s Immovable Property was utilised to enact urban public space closures. The City of Cape Town by-law was published in the Provincial Gazette of the Province of the Western Cape on 28 February 2003 and the first urban public space closure enacted under it took place on 13 February 2004.

  3. All these public spaces are in the public realm. The absence of the word ‘public’ before the description does not mean it is in the private realm. Thus, for example, ‘street’ and ‘public street’ are different namings of the same phenomena and both are in the public realm.

  4. 92% of the Camps Bay files and 97% of the Mitchell’s Plain files were available for analysis.

References

  • Akkar, M. (2005) The changing ‘publicness’ of contemporary public spaces: A case study of the Grey’s monument area, Newcastle upon Tyne. Urban Design International, 10(2), 95–113.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arefi, M., & Meyers, W. R. (2003) What is public about public space: The case of Visakhapatnam, India. Cities, 20(5), 331–339.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aurigi, A., & Graham, S. (1997). Virtual cities, social polarisation and the crisis in urban public space. Journal of Urban Technology, 4(1), 19–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bakker, K., & Hemson, D. (2000) Privatising water: BoTT and hydropolitics in the New South Africa. South African Geographical Journal, 82(1), 3–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bond, P. (2004). South Africa’s resurgent urban social movements: The case of Johannesburg, 1984, 1994, 2004. Centre for Civil Society Research, Report no. 22, 1–34. [Online]. Available at: http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/files/Bond-sm.pdf Accessed 23 June 2005.

  • Brecknock, R. (1995) My place – Our place or is it – Their place?. Paper presented at the Cultural Crossroads Conference held at Griffiths University, Brisbane, Australia. [Online]. Available at: http://www.brecknockconsulting.com.au/03_contacts/Conference%20Papers/Brecknock-Cultural%20Crossroads%201997.PDF Accessed 21 February 2005.

  • Capron, G. (2002) Accessibility to ‘modern public spaces’ in Latin-American cities: A multi-dimensional idea. GeoJournal, 58(2–3), 217–223.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Census (2001). Statistics South Africa, Pretoria.

  • Cybriwsky, R. (1999) Changing patterns of urban public space: Observations and assessments from the Tokyo and New York Metropolitan areas. Cities, 16(4), 223–231.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Day, K. (1999) Introducing gender into the critique of privatized space. Journal of Urban Design, 4(2), 155–178.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Desai, A. (2005) Uprooting or re-rooting poverty in post-apartheid South Africa? A literature review. Paper prepared for SANPAD Poverty Reduction Thematic Workshop held in Durban, South Africa, 24–25 May 2005. [Online]. Available at: http://www.sarpn.org.za/documents/d0001234/P1365-Ashwin_Desai_May2005.pdf Accessed 23 June 2005.

  • Dugény, F. (2002) Public, living and city space. Cahiers, 133/134. [Online]. Available at: http://www.iaurif.org/en/doc/studies/cahiers/cahiers_133/uk_introgenerale_c133.134.pdf Accessed 23 June 2005.

  • Garcia-Ramon, M. D., Ortiz, A., & Pratz, M. (2004) Urban planning, gender and the use of public space in a peripheral neighbourhood of Barcelona. Cities, 21(3), 215–223.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ghorra-Gobin, C. (2000) The political dimension of public spaces: Arguments in favour of their reinvention in urban theory. Paper presented at the Urban Futures Conference held in Johannesburg, South Africa, 10–14 July.

  • Goheen, P. G. (2003) The assertion of middle-class claims to public space in late Victorian Toronto. Journal of Historical Geography, 29(1), 73–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hemson, D. (1998) Privatisation, public-private partnerships, and outsourcing: The challenge to local governance. Transformation, 37, 1–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herson, L. J. R., & Bolland, J. M. (1997) The urban web: Politics, policy, and theory. Chicago: Nelson-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hook, D., & Vrdoljak, M. (2002) Gated communities, heterotopia and a “rights” of privilege: A ‘heterotopology’ of the South African Security-Park. Geoforum, 33(2), 195–219.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jürgens, U., & Gnad, M. (2002) Gated communities in South Africa – Experiences from Johannesburg. Environmental and Planning B: Planning and Design, 29(3), 337–353.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kressel, S. (1998) Privatizing the public realm. New democracy newsletter, July–August. [Online]. Available at http://newdemocracyworld.org/space.htm Accessed 21 February 2005.

  • Krupa, F. (1993) The privatization of public space. Masters thesis completed at the Parson School of Design, New York City. [Online]. Available at: http://www.translucency.com/frede/pps.html Accessed 21 February 2005.

  • Landman, K. (2000a) Gated communities and urban sustainability: Taking a closer look at the future. Paper presented at the 2nd South African Conference on Sustainable Development in the Built Environment held from 23 to 25 August 2000 in Pretoria, South Africa. [Online]. Available at: http://www.gatedcomsa.co.za/docs/urban_sustain.pdf Accessed on 16 October 2003.

  • Landman, K. (2000b) Gated communities: An international review. Boutek Report Number: BOU/I 186, Pretoria: Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.

  • Landman, K. (2002) Gated communities in South Africa: Building bridges or barriers? Paper presented at the International Conference on Private Urban Governance held from 6 to 9 June in Mainz, Germany. [Online]. Available at: http://www.gatedcomsa.co.za/docs/bridges_barriers.pdf Accessed on 16 October 2003.

  • Landman, K., & Schönteich, M. (2002) Urban fortresses: Gated communities as a reaction to crime. African Security Review, 11(4), 71–85. [Online]. Available at: http://www.iss.co.za/pubs/ASR/11No4/Landman.pdf Accessed on 16 October 2003.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lees, L. H. (1994) Urban public space and imagined communities in the 1980s and 1990s. Journal of Urban History, 20(4), 443–465.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lemanski, C. (2004) A new apartheid: The spatial implications of fear of crime in Cape Town, South Africa. Environment and Urbanization, 16(2), 101–112.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lester, A., Nel, E., & Binns, T. (2000) South Africa’s current transition in temporal and spatial context. Antipode, 32(2), 135–151.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lofland, L. H. (1989) Social life in the public realm. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 17(4), 453–482.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loudier, C., & Dubois, J.-L. (2002) Public spaces: Between insecurity and hospitality. Cahiers, 133/134. [Online]. Available at: http://www.iaurif.org/en/doc/studies/cahiers/cahiers_133/uk_PARTIE%201_C133.134.pdf Accessed 23 June 2005.

  • Low, S. M. (1997) Urban public spaces as representations of culture: The plaza in Costa Rica. Environment and Behavior, 29(1), 3–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacLeod, G. (2002) From urban entrepreneurialism to a ‘Revanchist City’? On the spatial injustices of Glasgow’s renaissance. Antipode, 34(3), 602–625.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maharaj, B. (2002) A critical, emancipatory geography: Still relevant in the New South Africa. Inaugural lecture presented at the University of Natal (Pietermaritzburg) on 2 October 2002.

  • Massey, R. T. (2003) Green spaces or profit places? An investigation of the privatisation of Johannesburg’s Parks management: A case study of Joubert Park. Paper presented on 17 September at the Annual Students Geography Conference 2003 held at the Hammanskraal Campus of the University of Pretoria, 14–18 September.

  • McDonald, D. A. (2002) Up against the (Crumbling) wall: The privatization of urban services and environmental justice. In D. A. McDonald (Ed.), Environmental justice in South Africa (pp. 292–324). Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McDonald, D. A., & Smith, L. (2002) Privatizing Cape Town: Service delivery and policy reforms since 1996. Occasional papers series number 7, Municipal Services Project.

  • McInroy, N. (2000) Urban regeneration and public space: The story of an urban park. Space & Polity, 4(1), 23–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mills, G. (1989) Space and power in South Africa: The township as a mechanism of control. Ekistics, 56(334/335), 65–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, D. (1995) The end of public space? People’s park, definitions of public, and democracy. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 85(1), 108–133.

    Google Scholar 

  • Narsiah, S. (2002) Neoliberalism and privatisation in South Africa. GeoJournal, 57(1–2), 3–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Punter, J. V. (1990) The privatisation of the public realm. Planning Practice and Research, 5(3), 9–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, B. (2005). Empty stomachs, empty pockets: Poverty and inequality in post-apartheid South Africa. In J. Daniel, R. Southall, & J. Lutchmann (Eds.), State of the nation: South Africa 2004–2005. Pretoria : Human Sciences Research Council. [Online]. Available at: http://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/user_uploads/tblPDF/2055_18_State_of_the_Nation_2004–2005~16112004111750AM.pdf Accessed 23 June 2005.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, J. (1996) The power of apartheid: State, power and space in South African cities. Oxford: Butterworth – Heinemann.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seekings, J. (2000) Introduction: Urban studies in South Africa after apartheid. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 24(4), 832–840.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sharp, E. B. (1982) Citizen-initiated contacting of government officials and socio-economic status: Determining the relationship and accounting for it. American Political Science Review, 76(1), 109–115.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shell, R. C.-H. (1984) Children of bondage: A social history of the slave society at the Cape of Good Hope, 1653–1838. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Siebel, W., & Wehrheim, J. (2003) Security and the urban public sphere. German Journal of Urban Studies, 42(1). [Online]. Available at: http://www.difu.de/index.shtml?/publikationen/dfk/en/ Accessed 21 February 2005.

  • Smithsimon, G. (2001) The technologies of public space and alternatives to a privatized New York. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association held in Anaheim, California, 18–21 August. [Online]. Available at: http://www.columbia.edu/~gs228/writing/techps.doc Accessed 28 June 2005.

  • Spocter, M. A. (1993) Overcrowding in Mitchell’s plain. Unpublished BA (Honours) Thesis in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of the Western Cape, Bellville.

  • Spocter, M. A. (2004) This is my space: Graffiti in Claremont, Cape Town. Urban Forum, 15(3), 292–304.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steel, M., & Symes, M. (2005) The privatisation of public space? The American experience of business improvement districts and their relationship to local governance. Local Government Studies, 31(3), 321–334.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Townshend, I. J. (2006) From public neighbourhoods to multi-tier private neighbourhoods: The evolving ecology of neighbourhood privatization in Calgary. GeoJournal, 66(1–2), 103–120.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turok, I. (2000) Persistent polarisation post-apartheid? Progress towards urban integration in Cape Town. Discussion Paper Number 1, Urban Change and Policy Research Group, Department of Urban Studies, University of Glasgow.

  • Turok, I., & Watson, V. (2001). Divergent development in South African cities: Strategic challenges facing Cape Town. Urban Forum, 21(2), 119–138.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van de Wetering, A. (2000) Enclosed neighbourhoods in perspectives. Unpublished B.TRP thesis. Pretoria: University of Pretoria. [Online]. Available at: http://www.gatedcomsa.co.za/docs/enclosed_neighbour.pdf Accessed on 16 October 2003.

  • Williams, K., & Greene, S. (2001) Literature review of public space and local environments for the cross cutting review. Report prepared for the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions.

  • Williams, P., & Taylor, I. (2000). Neoliberalism and the political economy of the ‘New’ South Africa. New Political Economy, 5(1), 21–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wise, D. (2003). The physical design of alleys: An evaluation of alleys in the Montreal Plateau. Unpublished Masters thesis. McGill University, Canada. [Online]. Available at: http://www.syldavia.net/Files/David%20Wise%20-%20Masters%20Thesis%20-%20Montreal%20Alleys.pdf Accessed 28 June 2004.

Download references

Acknowledgements

The author would like to express sincere thanks to Professor Ronnie Donaldson for his comments and critique on earlier drafts of this paper. The research was conducted with financial support of the National Research Foundation.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa

    Manfred Spocter

Authors
  1. Manfred Spocter
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Manfred Spocter.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Spocter, M. The ‘Silent’ Closure of Urban Public Space in Cape Town: 1975 to 2004. Urban Forum 18, 153–170 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-007-9009-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-007-9009-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation