Creating parallel public spaces through private governments: a South African case study

Abstract

This paper argues that in central Cape Town different public spaces exist in parallel to each other, continuing the long history of dysfunctional public spaces in South Africa. While some have suggested that the recent spread of privately governed and policed public spaces means that they have become privatised and form part of a segregated landscape of enclaves, the empirical data suggest a different assessment. Although agreeing that privately policed public spaces are distinctly different from ‘regular’, not privately governed spaces. In fact they have become more public than they were before. Here, the middle class that used to hide out in gated communities and shopping malls mingles again. Through this the existence of different parallel existing public spaces is being continued. Since the colonization of Cape Town, public space has always been segregated, especially with the exclusion of non-white parts of the population. Over time, each of the different segregated public spaces has developed their own cultures, norms and values. Within the researched spaces, this ‘tradition’ of dysfunctional public space continues. While the non-white urban poor congregate in ‘regular’ public spaces, a white, latté-consuming class of those who can afford it enjoy peace in the parallel existing public space.

Keywords:

• public space
• Cape Town
• City Improvement Districts
• private security
• post-apartheid city

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Richard Yarwood and James Sidaway for their support and advice. Also, I would like to thank the anonymous referee for the helpful comments on an earlier draft of the paper. The usual disclaimers apply.

Notes

^1. During the time of the research the author was based at Plymouth Univeristy.

^2. Often forgotten is that it was not only the middle and upper classes who tried to avoid public spaces, but also those such as street people as well, as they were in fact most likely to become victims of crime as various interviews have shown.

^3. Although Bickford-Smith (1995) explains that Cape Town was less strict in segregation levels, referring to the idea of Cape liberalism.

^4. Maylam (1995) points out that there were also several other acts and ways to establish control and order.