CHAPTER SIX CONTEXT OF THE KSiPP Introduction In their study of integration and its limitations in Johannesburg in the 1990s Beall, Crankshaw and Parnell assert that in order to understand and address divided cities, “…there is a need to understand the challenges involved within historical and geographical contexts” (Beall, Crankshaw and Parnell, 2002:196). Robinson (2006) similarly argues that cities are distinctive and need to be seen within their complex social, political, historical and economic realities. This chapter frames the rich context within which the Kathorus Special Integrated Presidential Project (KSiPP) operated. The details of the project itself will be set out in Chapter Seven. The context for the design and execution of the Kathorus Project was complex. The project’s inception was influenced by multiple forces in various spheres of governance. At a national policy level the development discourse of the pre-election era and the development imperatives of an emerging and young democracy fuelled the need for large-scale visible initiatives. The project drew its inspiration and guidance from emerging national policy as well as from the development discourse of the day. At regional level lobbying for space in a contested area of development would influence responsibilities for project execution. At a local level the parochial and competing visions of municipal institutions affected decisions. There was also the stark, raging urban warfare and economic decline. An ex post-facto evaluation conducted of the Kathorus Project notes the extraordinary institutional and political context within which this project was born: The KSPP occupies a fascinating historical space. It emerged out of an urban war in the weeks before the first democratic elections. There were 'no go' areas across the face of the three townships and levels of devastation echoed the destruction of the 1976 uprisings in PWV townships. The locally focused development project was furthermore initiated at a time of transitional local government and 119 CONTEXT OF THE KATHORUS SPECIAL INTEGRATED PRESIDENTIAL PROJECT (KSiPP) it trod the path of that transition through municipal elections to transformed new local government. The political context of the Project is equally remarkable, reflecting as it did a microcosm of South African society at the time. The deeply polarised ANC/IFP divide was epitomized in pre- election conflicts in the area, as were a range of local level tensions typical of urban townships in the country, but heightened by their peculiar juxtaposition in this setting. The previously white local governments of these East Rand areas were amongst the most conservative authorities in the country, and were in transitional local structures with their counterparts and with civic structures from the former black municipal areas. (GPG, 1999a:3) This chapter contextualises the KSiPP, and traces the historical, social, political and physical factors that influenced the project design. The context is detailed to illuminate the particularities of the setting and the era in which the project emerged. In addition, the dominant discourses and policies of the time are referenced in order to provide a reflective perspective on the power dynamics, pressures and preoccupations that framed the project. The chapter therefore straddles the general and the particular in mapping the context. The chapter is structured to examine the context at three levels: ► The locally specific physical, economic and social context of the three townships within the Near East Rand of the Witwatersrand, previously part of a booming manufacturing centre, but, since the 1980s, an area of large-scale decline and socio- political conflict. ► The institutional context at a regional and local level, where implementation of the project was seated. ► The national and international planning and policy context and the developing policy discourses that influenced project design, and associated academic shifts. 120 CONTEXT OF THE KATHORUS SPECIAL INTEGRATED PRESIDENTIAL PROJECT (KSiPP) Kathorus in the East Rand: A Context of Economic Decline, Political Conflict Economic Decline in South Africa’s Powerhouse Just at the point where South Africa needed economic growth in order to ensure a successful transition, the outlook looked bleak. Tomlinson (1994) found that growth rates had been declining for three decades; that per capita GDP growth had been negative for over a decade and that gross domestic investment as a percentage of GDP had declined by fifteen per cent between 1975 and 1990. These trends mirrored an international economic downturn, but South Africa could ill afford an economic crisis. Within this broader economic context, the locally specific issues of employment and affordability in Kathorus were dire, as elaborated below. The East Rand was significantly affected by economic downturn. This sub-region is estimated to contain thirty per cent of the Gauteng’s official population of 6.9 million people. The South African Cities Network notes that the population growth rate of Ekurhuleni in the period 1996 to 2000 was 22.4 per cent, representing the most rapid growth rate of all the metropolitan cities defined by the South African Cities Network (SACN) (SACN, 2004). The region has always been an important source of manufacturing and remains so at both a national and regional level. In 1988 twenty per cent of national and forty per cent of the then PWV administrative region’s manufacturing output was produced in the East Rand (CDE, 1997). The area was described in terms such as ‘Workshop of the Witwatersrand’, ‘African Powerhouse’ and the ‘Birmingham of South Africa’ in promotional pamphlets of the 1950s and 1960s (Silverman, 1997). However, the industrial decline that became evident in the 1980s impacted severely on this region, particularly in terms of employment. Silverman (1997) counts de-industrialisation, globalisation, changing labour practices (towards smaller more skilled worker bases and away from large unskilled workforces) and changing transportation (away from rail) technology amongst the economic trends that contributed to decline in the manufacturing base and the attractiveness of the area for industry. For much of the late 1980s and early 1990s national economic growth rates ranged between negative figures and two per cent. Unemployment rates soared as the labour absorption 121 CONTEXT OF THE KATHORUS SPECIAL INTEGRATED PRESIDENTIAL PROJECT (KSiPP) rate dropped from ninety-seven per cent in the 1960s to seven per cent in 1990 (Swilling, 1997). As decline set in, the East Rand did not benefit from the “typically footloose” location of newer, high tech industries (Silverman, 1997). Joblessness in the area was recorded as being as high as forty per cent (Silverman, 1997). As the apartheid controls began to break down, the PWV and the East Rand in particular became flooded by in- migrants attracted by the prospect of jobs. The conditions of economic decline, however, which coupled with poor administration of Black Local Authorities at the time, meant that more people were vying for increasingly limited and decaying resources. The clear need for an injection of resources to overcome the economic decline of the region would influence the decisions to approach the new government for priority funding for this area. In turn, the area’s economic importance would motivate the state’s allocation of funding to Kathorus (Interview: KSiPP project manager, 1999). Bonner and Nieftagodien (2001) note that the townships comprising Kathorus were historically located to serve as a labour pool for the white industrial towns of Germiston, Alberton and Boksburg and grew as offspring of the industrial development on the ‘Near East Rand’. The Near East Rand incorporated the three towns and their African counterparts, the term ‘near’ alluding to their proximity to Johannesburg. The estimated population of the Kathorus townships in the early 1990s was 1.5 million (Gastrow, 1996). Prior to their near devastation by violence, the former black townships of Katlehong, Thokoza and Vosloorus were relatively typical urban South African townships. While the CBDs, housing environments and general service levels of adjacent white towns were of an extremely high standard, conditions in these historic black areas were more than dismal. Beall, Crankshaw and Parnell (2002) note that racial residential segregation was compounded by vast inequalities in the quality of urban space and allocation of resources. With no revenue base black areas were doomed to be backwaters of the city, with high living densities, low level and poorly maintained basic services, low levels of affordability and poor health conditions. 122 CONTEXT OF THE KATHORUS SPECIAL INTEGRATED PRESIDENTIAL PROJECT (KSiPP) In the planning of these areas a limited transport system was provided, allowing essentially only for commuters to be taken to places of work. Vosloorus did not even have a rail link. It also had no medical facilities. Since government policy stated that townships had to be self-financing but ironically barred any commercial development within these areas, financing for basic services was limited. A lack of funding and the presence of local authorities with no popular mandate added decline and deterioration to the inadequate state of infrastructure. By the mid-1980s, Kathorus residents had to contend with outdated and insufficient sewerage systems, limited access to clean water and electricity and a general decline in housing