Uneven distribution of cultural facilities in the City of Tshwane, South Africa: a call for a cultural turn in spatial planning

Abstract

This paper examines the distribution of cultural facilities in the City of Tshwane, post-1994 democratic dispensation. The spread of these amenities by the municipality throughout its jurisdiction since its inception has been uneven; tilting towards the urban formerly white towns and cities as opposed to black townships and rural areas as part of its mandate to reverse the legacy of colonial and apartheid spatial planning. Through qualitative research, the paper explains this unevenness and argues that the absence of cultural planning devices to inform and guide equitable as well as equal distribution of resources only serves to perpetuate the status quo. It thus proposes a cultural turn in spatial planning in South Africa in general and Tshwane in particular to offset obvious historic disproportionate geographical contours.

Keywords:

• Cultural facilities
• cultural planning
• cultural policy
• spatial planning
• cultural turn

Notes

1. Gauteng is one of the nine provinces of South Africa established after the 1994 new political dispensation. The other provinces are Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, North West, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal. Gauteng province is considered the economic hub of South Africa and a gateway to the African continent and the entire globe.

2. The metaphor of ‘horse-shoe’ is drawn from the scholar’s European background. The appropriate African equivalent would be ‘cow-horns’. What appears to be a trivial distinction is actually extremely important as legends, folklores, idioms, literature and various social practices or activities, including military strategies and tactics, mimic eco-systems of the communities in which they are applied. A perfect example is the Zulu warrior Shaka’s famous bull-horns battle formation tactic.