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The Nelson Mandela Bridge as a Great Sign of Urban Transformation in Johannesburg, South Africa

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Abstract

The Nelson Mandela Bridge is one of South Africa’s monuments at the centre of the drive to foster urban transformation in the city of Johannesburg. It stands out as one of the monumental emblems of transformation after the disappearance of administrative and occupational apartheid. On the one hand, the bridge is used consciously and unconsciously, to rehearse the ideals of democracy by harping on the towering image of Nelson Mandela as a struggle hero. On the other hand, the bridge is ‘one of the prestigious projects at the centre of city-marketing and branding’. This article explores three dimensions of representation of the bridge in terms of what Stuart Hall refers to as reflective, intentional and constructivist meaning. The paper does this by examining how these meanings are produced and ordered, as well as, the knowledge, norms and practices that structure the new system of meaning in South Africa. The main argument of the paper is that the South African post-apartheid development ideology of reconstruction embedded in the struggle memory has become a platform on which the sign value of the NMB has become a rhetorical device for the appropriation of commercial interests.

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Source: Sowetan, 22 July 2003

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Notes

  1. These project occur on sites where major events took place during the struggle against apartheid e.g. murder or capture of ANC cadres.

  2. Blue IQ is a multi-billion rand initiative set up by the Gauteng Provincial Government in 1997, in partnership with business and government departments to promote strategic private sector investment in key growth sectors of the regional economy.

  3. The project was implemented under the guidance of the South African National Roads Agency. Goba Moahlodi and Keeve Steyn Inc was the consulting engineers. The main contractor for the bridge was LBA Consortium, a consortium between Grinaker-LTA, BCW joint venture and the Nelson Mandela Bridge Consultants Consortium (NMBCC). It took three years to build.

  4. JDA was set up in 2001 to stimulate and support area-based development initiatives throughout the Johannesburg Metropolitan Area.

  5. http://www.jda.org.za/index.php/milestones/braamfontein (Accessed, 25 July 2015).

  6. http://www.southafrica.net/za/en/articles/entry/article-southafrica.net-newtown-cultural-precinct (Accessed, 5 July 2015).

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  1. School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, WITS 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Mfaniseni Fana Sihlongonyane

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  1. Mfaniseni Fana Sihlongonyane
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Sihlongonyane, M.F. The Nelson Mandela Bridge as a Great Sign of Urban Transformation in Johannesburg, South Africa. Urban Forum 32, 457–474 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-021-09422-y

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