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Segvegutio N, Desegregation and De-Rucidzisu Tio N

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Segvegutio N, Desegregation and De-Rucidzisu Tio N spotlight the way these themes impact on an important aspect of city CHAPTER SIX life - the classic 'brown' environmental issues - in a politically democratic but unequal social context. This book sheds light on the changing social structure of Durban in Segvegutio n, Desegregation and particular, but its inadequacies in this regard are fairly manifest. Further research is badly needed on many other milieux in South African society. De-RucidZisu tion As this volume can demonstrate, for instance, the remarkable terrain of Cato Manor gets a lot of deserved attention (see also Maylam and Edwards Racial Politics and the City of Durban1 1996). This erstwhile farm was divided into Indian smallholdings and became the site of a massive African shackland in the 1940s. It was the scene of the worst incidences ofviolence in the so-called race riots between BRIJ MAHARAJ Africans and Indians in 1949, in fact it was largely a struggle by Africans, perhaps under the sway of enterprising individuals, to drive Indians out of this quite central area. Then Cato Manor residents were resettled in Indian and African Group Areas apart from small remnant populations. The strategic central state idea to turn this area into a white residential core proved totally impractical. Eventually, the large district was conceded is chapter examines the origins, implementation and the demise to the Indian administration but, in good part due to the machinations Tof racial segregation in Durban through an abstraction of specific of speculators, it only began to be demarcated for a new lndian settlement moments in the history of the city. Like many South African cities pattern in the dying years of the apartheid regime. Displaced Indians Durban does not function efficiently, 'largely due to the legacy of and Africans continued to view Cato Manor as theirs and wanted to apartheid' (Williamson 1996: 3). In fact, Durban was a pioneering return under a freer system. Large numbers of African squatters in fact 'exponent of group race policy' (Swanson 1968: 142), and as Maylam did settle in sections of Cato Manor as the regime weakened from the (1996, 26) has emphasized: end of the 1980s, exactly as the Indian House of Delegates did begin construction of new housing for its own constituents. Unsurprisingly much of the history of Durban in the twentieth century has been Cato Manor is the locus of a growing body of research as it is a pilot about the contesting of space. The local state consistently tried to project for the ANC government nationally and a unsurpassed control space in the service of the city's predominantly white middle magnifying glass for observing the new Durban. By contrast, there are class. Residential space has been manipulated through various no systematic social surveys on the big black townships such as Umlazi mechanisms with a view to banishing the black underclasses to the and KwaMashu. In a previous work, Freund has emphasized the rather city's periphery and so insulating and immunising whites from the dramatic nature of class formation and re-formation in the key Indian supposed dangers that accompanied the black urban presence. The population; again there is no systematic study of different fractions of closing down of physical space for the underclasses also served to the Indian population (or community?)going into the post-apartheid limit their access to other forms of space, economic, cultural and era (Freund 1995). political. Social research in South Africa, when it is there, has unconsciously followed the tide by concentrating on the inner life and dynamics of Conceptually, this chapter is influenced by the view that any realistic racial communities; there is a need to refocus on research that concentrates analysis of urban structure must recognise that the city is an embodiment on the relationships between communities and is willing to problematise of the political, economic and social structure of society. There are the concept of community itself. There is also a need to consider women, numerous conflicts over the control of urban space around such issues children, the elderly, other cross-cutting categories and place their urban as urban development plans, political influence, land use controls and agendas to the fore. the socio-spatial distribution of resources within the city. These conflicts Segregation, Desegregation and De-Racialisation 173 cannot be explained from a single perspective as they are influenced by of a 'growth coalition' between the local state, the Railways admin- local specificities and contingencies. However, a common feature of such istration and local capital, which co-ordinated attemprs to market the conflicts is the battle for 'political power and participation in the decision- city as an industrial and tourist centre (Maharaj 1996b), whilst the making process' (Leitner 1992: 1 12). harbour was the key factor attracting industries to the city. The chapter will reveal that in Durban the perceived economic threat Frequent references were made in Durban to economic competition from Indians consolidated an historical alliance between the white with other urban centres and the mobility of capital3 In order to further working class and the local state, and influenced the development of ensure that Durban was attractive to investors, the local state became segregation policies which culminated in the Group Areas Act (1950). heavily involved in the provision of the social means of reproduction - By the 1970s the socio-spatial structuring of the apartheid city of especially housing for working class whites. There were frequent requests Durban was complete. Economic imperatives influenced the develop- for the Council to provide housing for poor whites. For example, although ment of 'grey areas' in the early 1980s. Social movements with strong the Council's entry into the housing arena would disturb market forces, grassroots support demanded the transformation of the apartheid local the Town Clerk argued that the supply of housing would be increased state. The local authority was also forced to deal with land invasions and and rents would therefore be lowered. Overcrowding and its attendant the development of informal settlements. social problems would also be reduced.* In November 1927 the Public Health Committee stated that there was an urgent need for the provision Political contestation between the African National Congress (ANC) of houses for the poor class 'Europeans' and called for the initiation of a and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) resulted in the Durban region housing scheme to improve their living conditions. The Council agreed being racked by endemic violence since the 1980s (Morris and Hindson that poorer class whites were not adequately housed, and urged the 1992). The high levels of crime and violence in the region had a major - - government to assist in the provision of housing for this group.5 The impact on gowth and development. The development crisis in the ultimate concern was to cater for poor whites who were forced to live Durban region is illustrated by the rapid population growth, a slow next to Indians. This concern with the problems of working class whites economic growth rate, housing backlogs, an increasing number of permeated the discourse of the Town Council.' informal settlements, rising poverty, high unemployment rates and an In Durban there was a strong alliance between the Council and the inadequate supply of basic services to the majority of the population white working class. The Council bureaucracy, many of whom were (Pillay 1996). recruited from this group, were particularly sympathetic to white working After the unbanning of the liberation organisations in 1990, civic class interests. This was one of the factors influencing the local state to organisations began a campaign for a democratic city. This initiated the adopt a racist discourse which peaked in the 1950s (Maharaj 1996b). restructuring of local government and culminated with the election of a The perceived 'social menace' associated with the presence of Africans non-racial, democratic local authority. The democratically elected Metro and Indians in Durban compelled municipal officers to wrestle constantly Council faced a number of challenges, not least of which were land with 'problems' of crime, disease and sanitation (Swanson 1983). It was restitution claims from those who had been dispossessed, promoting- not merely by chance that the police and health authorities were largely local economic development, and addressing the historical backlog in pre-occupied with the urban 'Native' question. Municipal law identified infrastructure and service provision in previously disadvantaged areas. such functions, apart from controlling trade licences and maintaining roads, as the chief function of local government. Furthermore, Historical Perspectives In Durban the local state has historically played a critical role in the nature of urban labouring led white society to perceive public facilitating the gowth and development of commerce and industry. In order and personal security, overcrowding and slums, health and fact economic and industrial growth has featured prominently on the sanitation, in terms of racial differences. Whites found it easy to agenda of the local state since its very inception. Every attempt was deal with the labour question as a police problem and to debate the made to market the city as a 'premier borough' in terms of its potential social consequences ofAfrican urbanisation in the imagery of a health
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