In the past five years the numbers of enclosed neighbourhoods have significantly increased in South Africa. These are existing neighbourhoods that are closed off through gates and booms across the roads. Many of these neighbourhoods are fenced or walled off as well, with a limited number of controlled entrances/exits, manned by security guards in some cases. The roads within these neighbourhoods were previously, or still are public property and in most cases the local council is still responsible for public services to the community within the enclosed neighbourhoods. In this way public urban space is privatised, whether formally or informally. I will explore the distribution of enclosed neighbourhoods in South Africa on a national scale and within two metropolitan municipalities, viz., the Cities of Johannesburg and Tshwane. Then I proceed to highlight the nature and impact of these neighbourhoods on the privatisation of public space and draw on a wide basis of empirical data obtained through a national survey and in-depth case studies. Finally I will conclude with examples of lessons learnt from South Africa and how these may relate to international experience and future research on gated communities.
a b s t r a c tThe Constitution of South Africa guarantees the right to "adequate shelter" for all citizens within available state resources. While government policies and delivery programmes are trying to meet the need, a number of challenges, including increasing urbanisation and levels of poverty are continuously raising the demand. Three parallel streams are emerging in the housing landscape: private sector market related housing (including typical townhouse clusters and security/lifestyle estates), the delivery of public housing (including "RDP" and social housing models) and the emergence of various aided and unaided self-help models (including the "People's Housing Process" of state aided house building and the unaided growth of informal settlements). Despite a tradition of self-help housing in South Africa and a number of formal programmes to promote aided self-help housing, it has not gone to scale. This could be related to a number of challenges inherent in the particular South African context, including the significant role that the state plays in housing delivery, linked to an insufficient consideration of the local market, land supply patterns, land values and housing mix.
Gated communities have long been seen as a rational response to rising crime levels, yet very little is known about the extent to which residing in a gated community actually reduces an individuals" risk of criminal victimisation. In this study we use location quotients tocompare the extent of burglary in gated communities with burglary across the entire city of Tshwane, South Africa as well as compare burglary in gated communities with burglary occurring within a series of buffer intervals immediately surrounding these communities. Finally, we identify what physical characteristics of gated communities differentiate between high and low burglary in these enclaves. Prior to expectations we found that gated communities (and theirimmediate surrounding areas) are associated with increased levels of burglary. There are 2 however, a number ofphysical characteristics of gated communities which are associated with much lower burglary levels.The implications of our work from a crime prevention and development planning perspective are discussed.
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