POSTMODERN URBAN POLITICS IN SOUTH AFRICA: THE CASE OF STELLENBOSCH (2000–2004)

ABSTRACT

The paper adopts a postmodern perspective to account for post-2000 electoral urban politics in the Municipality of Stellenbosch in South Africa's Western Cape Province. It seeks to (1) explain the politics of reaction, the politics of resistance (or reconstruction), and the cultural politics of difference and identity that characterize a South African municipality; (2) study the reversals in the politics of reaction, the politics of resistance and the new cultural politics of difference and identity that characterize a South African municipality after political floor crossing and regime change; and (3) discuss the consequences of political floor crossing and a change in the political ‘hegemon’ for place-making and the ‘geography of difference’ at the municipal level in South Africa. It concludes that the Stellenbosch case highlights, within the context of postmodern urban politics, critical elements of the new cultural politics of multiplicity, difference and identity, and strategic alliances.