Social Inequality and Spatial Segregation in Cape Town

Abstract

Cape Town is widely considered to be South Africa’s most segregated city. The chapter outlines the history of social stratification and spatial segregation, including the coercion of colonial and apartheid governments to divide the population by race. Since 1994, the democratic government has lacked the same resolve and capacity to reverse this legacy and integrate the city. The chapter also analyses the changing socio-economic and residential patterns between 2001 and 2011 in more detail. It shows that the extent of segregation diminished between 2001 and 2011, contrary to expectations. It appears that affluent neighbourhoods became slightly more mixed and people in high-status occupations spread into surrounding areas. Some low-income neighbourhoods also became slightly more mixed by accommodating middle class residents. Further research is required to verify and explain these findings.

Socioeconomic-Related Inequalities in COVID-19 Vulnerability in South Africa

“…The significance of race was as expected, given that inequality in South Africa continues to have a substantial racial dimension, including in defining residential areas due to the country’s history of segregation regulations [ 10 ]. Thus, given the same income and education levels, Blacks remained more likely to be vulnerable to COVID-19 than other race groups.…”

“…Using nationally representative survey data from South Africa, this paper aims to fill in this knowledge gap, investigating the extent to which individuals are vulnerable to COVID-19 infection due to their health, socioeconomic, and living circumstances. South Africa is one of the African countries most affected by COVID-19 [ 8 ], which is characterised by high SES inequality [ 9 , 10 ]. Previous research in South Africa and elsewhere shows that a lower SES is associated with poor health [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ] and the inability to practice social distancing [ 16 , 17 ].…”

A 6-year audit of public-sector MR utilisation in the Western Cape province of South Africa

“…33 Furthermore, historically, the City of Cape Town (CCT) has had unequal development, with entrenched racial and economic divisions contributed by the combination of peninsular topography and the consequences of apartheid spatial planning. 34 , 35 These differences are manifest in the city’s distribution of economic and health indicators. The ‘eastern’ pathway is known to have a higher rate of poverty and a greater burden of communicable diseases.…”

Race and Space in the Postcolony: A Relational Study on Urban Planning Under Racial Capitalism in Brazil and South Africa

“…(Gradin 2013). Furthermore, the Black population lives in urban areas with disproportionately deficient access to public services, public investment, and housing quality in both countries (Hernández 2013; Turok, Visagie, and Scheba 2021). In rural areas, land distribution remains unequal.…”

“…In MMM, desegregation happened at a slow pace in the 1990s, and despite intensification in the 2000s, remains uneven today, as Figure 2 shows. While an increasing Black middle class emerges with the end of the racial laws, the “many tangible effects remain and are slow to change precisely because social stratification is still bound up with race” (Turok et al 2021).…”