‘Temporary’ relocation: spaces of contradiction in South African law

Abstract

Purpose – This study aims to examine how temporary relocation areas (TRAs), urban forms that facilitate evictions and forced relocations, have been written into South African legal and governmental structures through contested urban planning and legal regimes. Design/methodology/approach – Proceeding from the macro-scale of TRAs spread across the nation, to the mezzo-scale of the Delft Symphony Way TRA in Cape Town, to the micro-scale of an individual “blikkie” (housing unit) within this camp, the article looks at the form and function of the TRA in urban resettlement practices. Special attention is given to relocation areas’ designation as “temporary” spaces and the consequences of this temporal designation in law and on the ground. Findings – These sites have developed as technologies for negotiating competing demands on the state, and their presence foregrounds some of the deeply rooted contradictions in post-apartheid South Africa. They are places both within and apart from the city, often managed by city officials according to municipal specifications, but located proximally to key urban amenities, utilities services and employment centers. They also place contradictory demands on their residents, for whom making the TRA liveable also legitimates it as a form of housing. Originality/value – This article uncovers several concerns about TRAs, including their inadequacy for long-term settlement, their problematic usage as tools of dispossession and the spatial-material-legal imbrications by which TRAs exist, persist and act back upon both individual lives and policy spheres.

Sob o Arco-Íris: Migração, Precariedade e Poder Popular na África do Sul Pós-Apartheid

“…A pobreza e o desemprego continuam concentrados nas antigas áreas dos bantustões, mas com uma tendência de crescimento cada vez maior nos assentamentos informais periurbanos, a saber, "povoados" negros com condições de moradia similares às "shanty towns" ou "favelas" dos países menos favorecidos do mundo, e com um alto fluxo de migrantes africanos internos e transfronteiriços. São pessoas pobres que foram despejadas, uma vez que suas casas estavam na linha de frente da privatização de habitação, pela gentrificação urbana ou por prestigiosos projetos governamentais; esses pobres se concentraram, sempre e de novo, nos "blikkies" (barracos de ferro ondulado) das chamadas "áreas de realocação temporária" (Ranslem, 2015).…”

Precarious welfare states: Urban struggles over housing delivery in post-apartheid South Africa

“…It currently houses roughly 1800 structures (cf. Ranslem, 2015). Other major TRAs on the Cape Flats include Bosasa, Tsunami (just across the road from Blikkiesdorp), Langa Intersite, and Happy Valley.…”

Under the Rainbow: Migration, Precarity and People Power in Post-Apartheid South Africa

“…Poverty and unemployment remain concentrated in former Bantustan areas, but increasingly tilt towards peri-urban informal settlements; black ‘townships’ with conditions similar to ‘shanty towns’ or ‘favelas’ in the globe’s least favoured states, and with a high inflow of internal as well as African cross-border migrants. Poor people who have been evicted, as their homes have been seized on the frontlines of housing privatization, gentrification or governmental prestige projects, have, time and again, become concentrated in the ‘ blikkies’ (new-build corrugated iron shacks) of depressing so-called ‘temporary relocation areas’ (Ranslem, 2015).…”