South African CRIME QUARTERLY No

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

South African CRIME QUARTERLY No South African CRIME QUARTERLY No. 55 | Mar 2016 Previous issues In this edition Camilla Pickles asks whether ISS Pretoria obstetric violence should be criminalised. Block C, Brooklyn Court Inge Wessels and Cathy Ward offer a 361 Veale Street model for assessing the evidence base New Muckleneuk of parenting programmes. Carina du Toit Pretoria, South Africa and Zita Hansungule analyse judgements Tel: +27 12 346 9500 relating to the sentencing of children who Fax: +27 12 460 0998 turn 18 just before they are sentenced. Hema Hargovan assesses the use of victim/ ISS Addis Ababa offender dialogues and how they inform 5th Floor, Get House parole decisions. Gwen Dereymaeker Building, Africa Avenue analyses civil claims against the SAPS and Simon Howell et al discuss fluctuations in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia drug prices over time in Cape Town. Tel: +251 11 515 6320 Fax: +251 11 515 6449 ISS Dakar 4th Floor, Immeuble Atryum SACQ 53 is a special edition on Route de Ouakam commissions of inquiry into policing, guest Dakar, Senegal edited by Elrena van der Spuy. The focus of Tel: +221 33 860 3304/42 this edition was prompted by the release of Fax: +221 33 860 3343 the findings in 2015 of the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry into policing ISS Nairobi deficiencies in the Western Cape township; Braeside Gardens and the Farlam Commission that investigated off Muthangari Road police culpability in the deaths of protesting Lavington, Nairobi, Kenya miners at Marikana. The edition concludes with a interview with Judge Kate O’Regan, Cell: +254 72 860 7642 who reflects on her experience in heading Cell: +254 73 565 0300 the Khayelitsha Commission. www.issafrica.org > Probing the roots of community in District Six > The relevance of social cohesion to a city in the global South > Violence, local rule and party popularity in Imizamo Yethu > The Community Work Programme and its impact on social cohesion > Fear of crime and social cohesion in South Africa > How patterns of social cohesion vary with crime and fear The Institute for Security Studies is an African organisation which aims to enhance human security on the continent. It does independent and authoritative research, provides expert policy analysis and advice, and delivers practical training and technical assistance. © 2016, Institute for Security Studies All material in this edition of SACQ, with the exception of the front cover image, is subject to a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Licensing conditions are available from https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ ISSN 1991-3877 First published by the Institute for Security Studies, P O Box 1787, Brooklyn Square 0075 Pretoria, South Africa www.issafrica.org SACQ can be freely accessed on-line at http://www.issafrica.org/publications/south-african-crime-quarterly Editor Chandré Gould e-mail [email protected] Editorial board Professor Ann Skelton, Director: Centre for Child Law, University of Pretoria Judge Jody Kollapen, High Court of South Africa Dr Jonny Steinberg, Research Associate, Centre for Criminology, Oxford University Dr Jamil Mujuzi, Faculty of Law, University of the Western Cape Associate Professor Catherine Ward, Department of Psychology, University of Cape Town Associate Professor Dee Smythe, Director of the Centre for Law and Society, University of Cape Town Professor Bill Dixon, Professor of Criminology, School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Nottingham, UK Professor Rudolph Zinn, Department of Police Practice, University of South Africa Associate Professor Lukas Muntingh, Project Coordinator, Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative, Community Law Centre, University of the Western Cape Cover Nyanga, Cape Town: ‘He is close to them, but he sees them not; he touches them, but he feels them not; he exists but in himself and for himself alone.’ – French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville. © Image supplied by the photographer, Don Pinnock. Production Image Design 071 883 9359 Printing Remata Contents SA Crime Quarterly No. 55 | March 2016 Editorial Making sense of the duality of social cohesion ............................................................................................... 3 Vanessa Barolsky and Chandré Gould Research articles To be a somebody ............................................................................................................................................ 7 Probing the roots of community in District Six Don Pinnock Is social cohesion relevant to a city in the global South? ............................................................................. 17 A case study of Khayelitsha Township Vanessa Barolsky Pervasive, but not politicised ........................................................................................................................ 31 Everyday violence, local rule and party popularity in a Cape Town township Laurence Piper and Joanna Wheeler Facilitating or hindering social cohesion? ...................................................................................................... 41 The impact of the Community Work Programme in selected South African townships Malose Langa, Themba Masuku, David Bruce and Hugo van der Merwe Pulling us apart? ............................................................................................................................................ 49 The association between fear of crime and social cohesion in South Africa Benjamin Roberts and Steven Gordon Comfortably cosmopolitan? .......................................................................................................................... 61 How patterns of ‘social cohesion’ vary with crime and fear Anine Kriegler and Mark Shaw Editorial policy South African Crime Quarterly is an inter-disciplinary peer-reviewed journal that promotes professional discourse and the publication of research on the subjects of crime, criminal justice, crime prevention and related matters, including state and non-state responses to crime and violence. South Africa is the primary focus of the journal but articles on the above- mentioned subjects that reflect research and analysis from other African countries are considered for publication, if they are of relevance to South Africa. SACQ is an applied policy journal. Its audience includes policymakers, criminal justice practitioners and civil society researchers and analysts, including academics. The purpose of the journal is to inform and influence policymaking on violence prevention, crime reduction and criminal justice. All articles submitted to SACQ are double-blind peer-reviewed before publication. SA Crime QuArterly No. 55 • mAr 2016 A1 Editorial Making sense of the duality of social cohesion http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2413-3108/2016/v0n55a763 This edition of South African Crime Quarterly is a special edition dedicated to investigating the role of social cohesion in understanding and addressing the problem of violence in South Africa. Social cohesion is a broad concept, but can be summarised briefly as referring to the factors that ‘hold a society together’.1 The term has been utilised to denote a broad array of social characteristics that are seen to contribute to connectedness and solidarity at local and national levels. These include common values and identity, feelings of belonging, citizen participation in common organisations, and community cooperation and interaction. It extends further to encompass those things that are necessary for sustaining (holding together) a democratic nation-state, such as political legitimacy and democratic participation. By implication, a society lacking cohesion would be one that displayed social disorder and conflict, disparate moral values, extreme social inequality, low levels of social interaction between and within communities, and low levels of place attachment – characteristics that are familiar to South Africa.2 Collective efficacy, a more recent development of the concept of social cohesion, refers to how social cohesion can prevent violence when it is translated into collective action for the ‘common good’ at neighbourhood level.3 While a lack of social cohesion is theorised to result in a state of disorder or conflict, low levels of social cohesion are also seen to undermine the effectiveness of crime prevention initiatives at local level. International studies have found that communities with the highest crime and violence rates are often those who are unable or reluctant to organise collaboratively as a result of lack of trust. But is this the case in South Africa? This edition of the SACQ seeks to critically interrogate the concept of social cohesion and its meaning in South Africa. Thus far, the leading policy and academic work on social cohesion and collective efficacy has taken place in countries in the global North and has been oriented to address the problems of division in these contexts. In South Africa, we face a different set of challenges in a country defined by its heterogeneity and inequality. One of our primary challenges is to determine how to constitute a new democratic nation-state, based on relationships of solidarity and connection between citizens, after the many decades of conflict and division that tore apart our social fabric and while inequality remains a stubborn feature of our landscape. While the term ‘social cohesion’ has been incorporated into government discourse over the past decade, and efforts have been made to indigenise the concept by incorporating local concepts such as ubuntu into our notion of social
Recommended publications
  • Constitutional Authority and Its Limitations: the Politics of Sexuality in South Africa
    South Africa Constitutional Authority and its Limitations: The Politics of Sexuality in South Africa Belinda Beresford Helen Schneider Robert Sember Vagner Almeida “While the newly enfranchised have much to gain by supporting their government, they also have much to lose.” Adebe Zegeye (2001) A history of the future: Constitutional rights South Africa’s Constitutional Court is housed in an architecturally innovative complex on Constitution Hill, a 100-acre site in central Johannesburg. The site is adjacent to Hillbrow, a neighborhood of high-rise apartment buildings into which are crowded thousands of mi- grants from across the country and the continent. This is one of the country’s most densely populated, cosmopolitan and severely blighted urban areas. From its position atop Constitu- tion Hill, the Court offers views of Hillbrow’s high-rises and the distant northern suburbs where the established white elite and increasing numbers of newly affluent non-white South Africans live. Thus, while the light-filled, colorful and contemporary Constitutional Court buildings reflect the progressive and optimistic vision of post-apartheid South Africa the lo- cation is a reminder of the deeply entrenched inequalities that continue to define the rights of the majority of people in the country and the continent. CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY AND ITS LIMITATIONS: THE POLITICS OF SEXUALITY IN SOUTH AFRICA 197 From the late 1800s to 1983 Constitution Hill was the location of Johannesburg’s central prison, the remains of which now lie in the shadow of the new court buildings. Former prison buildings include a fort built by the Boers (descendents of Dutch settlers) in the late 1800s to defend themselves against the thousands of men and women who arrived following the discovery of the area’s expansive gold deposits.
    [Show full text]
  • Economic Ascendance Is/As Moral Rightness: the New Religious Political Right in Post-Apartheid South Africa Part
    Economic Ascendance is/as Moral Rightness: The New Religious Political Right in Post-apartheid South Africa Part One: The Political Introduction If one were to go by the paucity of academic scholarship on the broad New Right in the post-apartheid South African context, one would not be remiss for thinking that the country is immune from this global phenomenon. I say broad because there is some academic scholarship that deals only with the existence of right wing organisations at the end of the apartheid era (du Toit 1991, Grobbelaar et al. 1989, Schönteich 2004, Schönteich and Boshoff 2003, van Rooyen 1994, Visser 2007, Welsh 1988, 1989,1995, Zille 1988). In this older context, this work focuses on a number of white Right organisations, including their ideas of nationalism, the role of Christianity in their ideologies, as well as their opposition to reform in South Africa, especially the significance of the idea of partition in these organisations. Helen Zille’s list, for example, includes the Herstigte Nasionale Party, Conservative Party, Afrikaner People’s Guard, South African Bureau of Racial Affairs (SABRA), Society of Orange Workers, Forum for the Future, Stallard Foundation, Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB), and the White Liberation Movement (BBB). There is also literature that deals with New Right ideology and its impact on South African education in the transition era by drawing on the broader literature on how the New Right was using education as a primary battleground globally (Fataar 1997, Kallaway 1989). Moreover, another narrow and newer literature exists that continues the focus on primarily extreme right organisations in South Africa that have found resonance in the global context of the rise of the so-called Alternative Right that rejects mainstream conservatism.
    [Show full text]
  • The Illegal Abalone Trade in the Western Cape Khalil Goga
    ISS PAPER 261 | AUGUST 2014 The illegal abalone trade in the Western Cape Khalil Goga Summary This case study provides the context in which the abalone trade in South Africa occurs, describes the various stages of the trade and analyses the impact of the illegal trade on governance. The community of Hout Bay was chosen as it appears to typify the trade across the Western Cape. The report concludes that criminal governance in the abalone trade takes various forms. These include the marginalised turning to the informal economy; both abalone wholesalers and gangsters developing a level of power over a region that renders them parallel sources of authority; the corruption and co-opting of state offi cials; and, arguably, the state’s reliance on the seizure of poached abalone. THE ILLEGAL ABALONE TRADE resource management and consists of study can reduce certain conceptual provides an important case study of a numerous complexities that threaten barriers that exist in understanding the criminal network in Cape Town and how sustainable utilisation. First is the poaching trade. Von Lampe argues that it impacts on governance. The supply involvement of a broad spectrum of if one is to defi ne criminal networks as chain, or market processes of this role-players, ranging from those at ’sets of actors that are connected by trade reveal a number of connections the water’s edge to highly organised ties that in some way or other support that warrant further study. Of particular syndicates. Whether involved as the commission of illegal acts’, they importance are the production, divers, assistants, bag carriers, will constitute the ’least common transportation and distribution look-outs, transporters, or buyers, denominator of organised crime and processes, and the networks used.
    [Show full text]
  • Approved Belcom Decisions 27 August 2019 1
    APPROVED DECISIONS OF THE MEETING OF HERITAGE WESTERN CAPE, BUILT ENVIRONMENT AND LANDSCAPE PERMIT COMMITTEE (BELCom) Held on Tuesday, 27 August 2019 in the 1st Floor Boardroom at the Offices of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport, Protea Assurance Building, Greenmarket Square, Cape Town scheduled for 09:00 MATTERS DISCUSSED 11 PROVINCIAL HERITAGE SITES: SECTION 27 PERMIT APPLICATIONS 11.1 Proposed Additions and Alterations at Erf 65106, 5 Ascot Road, Kenilworth: MA HM/ CAPE TOWN METROPOLITAN/KENILWORTH/ERF 65106 Case No: 19040407HB0507E DISCUSSION: Amongst other things, the following was discussed: • The Committee and the Applicant discussed the previous meeting’s decision of BELCom on 26 June 2019 and site report, in order to clarify the issues raised. The site report is to be forwarded to the Applicant immediately to assist with clarifying the Committee’s previous minuted response. WD 11.2 Proposed Rezoning from Residential 1 to General Residential in order to Develop a Guest House on Erf 4784, Paarl: MA HM / PAARL / ERF 4784 Case No: 18080107SB0831E RECORD OF DECISION: The Committee resolved to approve the application as a substantial improvement on previous proposals on condition that: 1. A veranda roof is to be added above the proposed first floor walkway. 2. The upstand gable in Section 2 is to be amended to depict a full gable. With the above conditions, heritage resources will no longer be negatively impacted. Revised drawings, including all the elevations are to be submitted to HOMs for approval. SB Approved BELCom Decisions_27 August 2019 1 11.3 Proposed Additions and Alterations, Erf 28173, 2 Dixon Road, Observatory: NM HM/ OBSERVATORY/ ERF 28173 Case No: 19043001HB0522E RECORD OF DECISION: 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Coloured’ Schools in Cape Town, South Africa
    Constructing Ambiguous Identities: Negotiating Race, Respect, and Social Change in ‘Coloured’ Schools in Cape Town, South Africa Daniel Patrick Hammett Ph.D. The University of Edinburgh 2007 1 Declaration This thesis has been composed by myself from the results of my own work, except where otherwise acknowledged. It has not been submitted in any previous application for a degree. i Abstract South African social relations in the second decade of democracy remain framed by race. Spatial and social lived realities, the continued importance of belonging – to feel part of a community, mean that identifying as ‘coloured’ in South Africa continues to be contested, fluid and often ambiguous. This thesis considers the changing social location of ‘coloured’ teachers through the narratives of former and current teachers and students. Education is used as a site through which to explore the wider social impacts of social and spatial engineering during and subsequent to apartheid. Two key themes are examined in the space of education, those of racial identity and of respect. These are brought together in an interwoven narrative to consider whether or not ‘coloured’ teachers in the post-apartheid period are respected and the historical trajectories leading to the contemporary situation. Two main concerns are addressed. The first considers the question of racial identification to constructions of self-identity. Working with post-colonial theory and notions of mimicry and ambivalence, the relationship between teachers and the identifier ‘coloured’ is shown to be problematic and contested. Second, and connected to teachers’ engagement with racialised identities, is the notion of respect. As with claims to identity and racial categorisation, the concept of respect is considered as mutable and dynamic and rendered with contextually subjective meanings that are often contested and ambivalent.
    [Show full text]
  • INTEGRATED HUMAN SETTLEMENTS FIVE-YEAR STRATEGIC PLAN July 2012 – June 2017 2013/14 REVIEW
    INTEGRATED HUMAN SETTLEMENTS FIVE-YEAR STRATEGIC PLAN July 2012 – June 2017 2013/14 REVIEW THE CITY OF CAPE TOWN’S VISION & MISSION The vision and mission of the City of Cape Town is threefold: • To be an opportunity city that creates an enabling environment for economic growth and job creation • To deliver quality services to all residents • To serve the citizens of Cape Town as a well-governed and corruption-free administration The City of Cape Town pursues a multi-pronged vision to: • be a prosperous city that creates an enabling and inclusive environment for shared economic growth and development; • achieve effective and equitable service delivery; and • serve the citizens of Cape Town as a well-governed and effectively run administration. In striving to achieve this vision, the City’s mission is to: • contribute actively to the development of its environmental, human and social capital; • offer high-quality services to all who live in, do business in, or visit Cape Town as tourists; and • be known for its efficient, effective and caring government. Spearheading this resolve is a focus on infrastructure investment and maintenance to provide a sustainable drive for economic growth and development, greater economic freedom, and increased opportunities for investment and job creation. To achieve its vision, the City of Cape Town will build on the strategic focus areas it has identified as the cornerstones of a successful and thriving city, and which form the foundation of its Five-year Integrated Development Plan. The vision is built on five key pillars: THE OPPORTUNITY CITY Pillar 1: Ensure that Cape Town continues to grow as an opportunity city THE SAFE CITY Pillar 2: Make Cape Town an increasingly safe city THE CARING CITY Pillar 3: Make Cape Town even more of a caring city THE INCLUSIVE CITY Pillar 4: Ensure that Cape Town is an inclusive city THE WELL-RUN CITY Pillar 5: Make sure Cape Town continues to be a well-run city These five focus areas inform all the City’s plans and policies.
    [Show full text]
  • Sitting(Link Is External)
    1 THURSDAY, 10 MAY 2018 PROCEEDINGS OF THE WESTERN CAPE PROVINCIAL PARLIAMENT The sign † indicates the original language and [ ] directly thereafter indicates a translation. The House met at 14:15 The Deputy Speaker took the Chair and read the prayer. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: You may be seated. [Interjections.] Order! I see the Chief Whip first. (Notice of Motion) Mr M G E WILEY: Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I give notice that I shall move: That, notwithstanding the provisions of Rule 198, precedence be given to the Subject for Discussion. Thank you. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you. No objection to that? Agreed to. 2 We will then start with the Subject for Discussion in the name of the hon member Gillion. I see the hon Gillion. †Mnr Q R DYANTYI: Hoor-hoor! [Mr Q R DYANTYI: Hear-hear!] Ms M N GILLION: Mr Deputy Speaker, 2018 marks the tail -end of this administration’s term and the DA’s decade of misrule is representative of a period of regression in service delivery for the poor. Reality is that th is protracted period of disservice to our people has been marked by the deteriorating living conditions for the poor and marginalised, which forced thousands of people to take to the streets on Freedom Day, calling on the DA Government to break with the past and focus on service delivery. The most pressing challenges faced by the people in this province include inadequate living conditions, crime, poverty, dread diseases and unemployment. These challenges seem to be colour -conscious as they affect the black majority, while the minority is well taken care of.
    [Show full text]
  • Informal Settlement Upgrading in Cape Town’S Hangberg: Local Government, Urban Governance and the ‘Right to the City’
    Informal Settlement Upgrading in Cape Town’s Hangberg: Local Government, Urban Governance and the ‘Right to the City’ by Walter Vincent Patrick Fieuw Thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Sustainable Development Planning and Management in the Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences at Stellenbosch University Supervisor: Dr Firoz Khan December 2011 Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za Declaration By submitting this thesis electronically, I declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the sole author thereof (save to the extent explicitly otherwise stated), that reproduction and publication thereof by Stellenbosch University will not infringe any third party rights and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification. Signature Walter Fieuw Name in full 22/11/2011 Date Copyright © 2011 Stellenbosch University All rights reserved ii Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za Abstract Integrating the poor into the fibre of the city is an important theme in housing and urban policies in post‐apartheid South Africa. In other words, the need for making place for the ‘black’ majority in urban spaces previously reserved for ‘whites’ is premised on notions of equity and social change in a democratic political dispensation. However, these potentially transformative thrusts have been eclipsed by more conservative, neoliberal developmental trajectories. Failure to transform apartheid spatialities has worsened income distribution, intensified suburban sprawl, and increased the daily livelihood costs of the poor. After a decade of unintended consequences, new policy directives on informal settlements were initiated through Breaking New Ground (DoH 2004b).
    [Show full text]
  • Hate Crimes Against Black Lesbian South Africans: Where Race, Sexual Orientation and Gender Collide (Part Ii)
    HATE CRIMES AGAINST BLACK LESBIAN SOUTH AFRICANS: WHERE RACE, SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND GENDER COLLIDE (PART II) Kamban Naidoo BA LLB LLM Senior Lecturer, Criminal and Procedural Law University of South Africa (UNISA) Michelle Karels LLB LLM Senior Lecturer, Criminal and Procedural Law University of South Africa (UNISA) SUMMARY This article, which is the second of a two-part submission, examines the South African legal position pertaining to sexual offences and murder as a continuation of the theme introduced in Part One. The authors then examine the concept of motive before providing a brief overview of hate crime legislation and/or policy in the United States of America and Germany. The core of the article examines three possible routes for South Africa to curb hate crime. Firstly, the creation of substantive hate crime law in the form of legislation, secondly, the amendment of current legislation to incorporate protection against this form of crime and thirdly, the retention of the current status quo coupled with the roll-out of civil society initiatives to curb hate- motivated crime. The conclusion of the article provides recommendations from a civil society and criminal justice perspective. A INTRODUCTION This article seeks to extend the foundational framework laid in Part I within the context of criminal legal doctrine generally and the potential for hate- crime legislation in South Africa specifically. At the time of writing, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development had appointed a task team to investigate hate-crime legislation and to submit proposals with regard to such legislation in South Africa. 1 The research is, however, still in 1 Anonymous “Speech by Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Mr Andries Nel, MP, on the occasion of the official opening of the first networking session of the national task team on LGTBI Crime-related issues” October 2011 http://www.info.
    [Show full text]
  • Approved HOM Minutes 30 November 2020
    APPROVED MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF HERITAGE WESTERN CAPE, HERITAGE OFFICERS MEETING Held on Monday, 30 November 2020, HOMS MEETING VIA MICROSOFT TEAMS, scheduled for 09:00 1. OPENING AND WELCOME The Chairperson, Ms Waseefa Dhansay officially opened the meeting at 09:00 and welcomed everyone present. 2. ATTENDANCE Members Members of Staff Ms Laura Milandri(LM) Ms Nosiphiwo Tafeni (NT) (secretary) Mr Peter Buttgens(PB) Ms Waseefa Dhansay (WD)(Assitant Director) Ms Stephanie Barnardt (SB)(Case Officer) Ms Khanyisile Bonile (KB)( Case Officer) Ms Sandisiwe Matole (SM)(Case Officer) Mr Thando Zingange (TZ)(Case Officer) Ms Nokubonga Dlamini (ND)(Case Officer) Ms Anita Shologu (AS)(Intern Admin support) Ms Xola Mlwandle (XM)(Intern Admin support) Legal Advisor Ms Penelope Meyer (PM) Visitors Observers None 3 APOLOGIES Ms Colette Scheermeyer Absent None 4. APPROVAL OF AGENDA 4.1 Dated 9 November 2020. The items relevant to the meeting were noted as those assigned in the case allocation for the meeting of 30th November 2020. TZ moved to adopt the agenda and SM supported. 5. Approval of Minutes of the Previous Meetings 5.1 Minutes from 2nd, 23, and 26 November 2020 will be approved in the next HOMs meeting. 6. Disclosure of conflict of interest 6.1 None HOMS Minutes 30 November 2020 Page 1 of 24 7. Confidential matters 8. Standing Items 8.1 Site inspections undertaken 8.2 Proposed Site Inspection 8.3 Site Inspection Reports 8.4 Preparation for the upcoming coming committee meetings 8.4.1 APM Committee meeting 2 December 2020 8.4.2 Appeals committee 4 December 2020 8.5 Interim and Close Out Reports 8.5.1 None 8.6 Incomplete Applications 8.6.1 Proposed Alterations and Additions, Erf 6948, 1 Mikes Street, Gordons Bay, CT S38(4)-NID HM/ CAPE TOWN METROPOLITAN/ GORDONS BAY/ ERF 6948 Case No:20092108ND0930E 8.6.2 Proposed Alterations and Additions, Erf 725, 10 and 12 Prince Edward Mansions, 317 Beach Road, Bantry Bay.
    [Show full text]
  • Property, Housing and Neo- Apartheid Segregation in Hout Bay
    Chapter Three Selling the Mountain: property, housing and neo- apartheid segregation in Hout Bay Figure 3.1. The global property market comes to the fishing village ​ In July 2009, an article in the Sunday Times, the leading national newspaper, claimed that the ​ ​ Sentinel Mountain in Hout Bay was on the property market by auction, and that enquiries had been made by ‘talk show host Oprah Winfrey, hotel magnate Sol Kerzner, Donald Trump jnr as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’. In addition, the article continued, ‘the new owners could, if they wished ... name the peak after themselves as the Sentinel was not a registered trademark. Auctioneers had reportedly turned down two offers, including one for R15 1 million’ (News24 2009). Not surprisingly, alarm spread through Hangberg, the major settlement on the Sentinel Mountain. On 16 July 2009, the morning of the auction, a crowd of 300 protesters from Hangberg gathered outside the site of the sale, the Chapman’s Peak Hotel, led by the Hout Bay Civic. According to Isaac James, a Hout Bay Civic leader, they wanted to ‘sit down with the auctioneers' to convince the owners to halt plans to sell the prized real estate (News24 2009). However, once it was clear that the auction was proceeding, the protest became confrontational. Some protesters began to throw stones, and the police opened fire on the crowd, showering them with rubber bullets and teargas. This confrontation quickly brought the auction to a halt. In the aftermath of this event, it transpired that it was not the whole of the Sentinel Mountain for sale, which would have included Hangberg on its lower reaches.
    [Show full text]
  • Custodians of the Cape Peninsula: a Historical and Contemporary Ethnography of Urban Conservation in Cape Town
    Custodians of the Cape Peninsula: A historical and contemporary ethnography of urban conservation in Cape Town by Janie Swanepoel Thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Social Anthropology in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Stellenbosch University Supervisor: Prof Steven L. Robins December 2013 Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za Declaration By submitting this thesis electronically, I declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the sole author thereof (save to the extent explicitly otherwise stated), that reproduction and publication thereof by Stellenbosch University will not infringe any third party rights and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification. December 2013 Copyright © 2013 Stellenbosch University All rights reserved II Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za ABSTRACT The official custodian of the Cape Peninsula mountain chain, located at the centre of Cape Town, is the Table Mountain National Park (TMNP). This park is South Africa’s only urban open-access park and has been declared a World Heritage Site. This thesis is an anthropological and historical examination of the past and present conservation of the Cape Peninsula . I provide an overview of the relationship between the urban environment and the Cape Peninsula aiming to illustrate the produced character of the mountains and its mediation in power relations. This study of custodianship reveals that protecting and conserving the Cape Peninsula is shaped by the politics of the urban and natural environment as well as by the experience of living in the city.
    [Show full text]