A new apartheid? The spatial implications of fear of crime in Cape Town, South Africa

Abstract

This paper examines the fear of crime in post-apartheid South Africa and its impact on urban space and form, focusing in particular on Cape Town. South African statistics point to alarming increases in serious crime over recent years and, although such statistics are considered unreliable, reflecting to some extent increases in the rate of crime reporting, the public perception is nonetheless one of decreased security. Attempts to mitigate fear have resulted increasingly in the creation of fortified enclaves and a withdrawal from public space. Although the more extreme manifestations are restricted to affluent areas, levels of residential protection have increased among all groups. As in other parts of the world, this “architecture of fear” results in growing danger within the public domain and the increasing polarization of social groups. The paper argues that this trend in South Africa perpetuates the social divisions that were inherent in the apartheid state into the post-apartheid context, with the fear of crime being used as a justification for a predominantly racist fear of difference.

Is it safer behind the gates? Crime and gated communities in South Africa

“…This is the issue of segregation. A lot has been written 23 about the segregation effects of gated communities in South Africa (see JürgensandGnad, 2002;Lemanski, 2004;Landman, 2004) and it is beyond the scope of this paper to delve into this work. We do however find it relevant to make the point that whilst gatedcommunitiesmay be creating a new form of spatial segregation and social exclusion in South Africa they are also not accomplishing their primary goal, which is to prevent crime, or rather reduce the risk of criminal victimisation of residents.…”

A call for comparative thinking: Crime, citizenship and security in the global South

“…In her study of spatial separation in Cape Town, Charlotte Lemansky observes that, based on the Latin American experience, 'walls and gates have reinforced a vicious cycle of poverty and exclusion by concentrating the poorest social groups in spaces with minimal economic and political leverage… Furthermore, enclaves do not just respond to difference and fear, but actually deepen segregation and reinforce fear by excluding difference and limiting social mixing, thus increasing paranoia and mistrust between groups. ' 16 In this study it became clear that the view of the middle class white area was that 'crime originated from outside the community' . 17 The community could therefore establish a level of 'trust' and social relations that bound them together in relation to an external threat.…”

An Ethnomethodological, Conversation Analytic Approach to Investigating Race in South Africa

“…These associations have long held currency among white South Africans in particular, with discourses of die swaart gevaar ('the black danger') being used to justify segregation before and during apartheid, and being recapitulated in euphemistic links between race and crime in the postapartheid era (see, for e.g., Lemanski 2004).…”