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The Economic and Social Geography of South Africa: Progress Beyond Apartheid

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Christian M. Rogerson (2000). The Economic and Social Geography of South Africa: Progress Beyond Apartheid. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie 91(4). Blackwell Publishers / Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG.
Type journal article
Scope Post-1994 South African economy
Method synthesis review
Period studied 1994–2000
Regions South Africa, Gauteng, Former homelands, Southern Africa
Themes transition post apartheid, demography urbanisation, agriculture land, bantustans removals influx, inequality poverty unemployment, manufacturing industrial policy, comparative theory, methods data sources
Citation key rogerson2000

Argument

This is an introductory review essay for a special issue. It surveys post-1994 South African economic and social geography under three headings: national, rural and urban change. Rogerson argues that geographers have documented both continuities and discontinuities with apartheid. Examples of continuity are segregated cities, displaced urban settlements, the dominance of Gauteng and the slow pace of land reform and RDP delivery. Examples of change are new migration flows, spatial development initiatives and informal and immigrant enterprise. He also argues that South African geography is leaving a period of parochialism and apartheid 'uniqueness' and engaging with international theory and debates.

Evidence and method

A literature review of mainly South African and some international geographical writing from 1994 to 2000, drawn from the South African Geographical Journal, Urban Forum, Africa Insight and Development Southern Africa. It also cites books, unpublished reports and theses, and quotes the 1996 census for population figures. It presents no original data.

Findings

  • Post-apartheid South Africa should no longer be treated as a special case. (p. 1)

    It is evident that South African society and economy can no longer be pigeonholed as a special case of interest to a group of scholars

  • The 1996 census shows a majority-urban population. (p. 3)

    The results of South Africa's 1996 census suggest that of the total population of 40.6 million, the urban areas have a population share of 55% as compared to the 45% share living in rural areas.

  • McCarthy argues that new growth drivers may erode Gauteng's historical dominance. (p. 2)

    the historical dominance of the Gauteng agglomeration, centred on Johannesburg and Pretoria, may potentially be threatened by a new shift in economic gravity towards the coastal cities.

  • Other work doubts that the space economy will change quickly, because Gauteng remains dominant. (p. 2)

    major spatial change is likely to be, at best, glacial, especially in view of the continuing strength and dominance of the Gauteng agglomeration

  • Apartheid forced removals left millions in remote 'displaced urban' settlements. (p. 4)

    10% of South Africa's population (four million people) live in settlements that are

  • Land reform and restitution have been criticised for their slow pace. (p. 4)

    much criticism has centred on the slow pace of the land reform process and of the return to the land of communities formerly dispossessed in the apartheid period

  • Ending homeland industrial incentives has caused de-industrialisation in former Bantustan areas. (p. 4)

    de-industrialisation processes have been observed as a result of the phasing-out of industrial incentives in former Bantustan locales

  • Parnell rejects the view that the apartheid city is uniquely distorted by racism. (p. 5)

    Parnell (1996) profoundly attacks the notion that the South African urban experience has been so profoundly distorted by racist policies and interventions

  • Bremner attributes the blurring of apartheid urban segregation to markets rather than state design. (p. 5)

    be attributed more to market forces, the pressures of rapid urbanisation and upward black mobility, than to design or administrative intent

  • Early post-1994 governments are judged to have done little to challenge apartheid geography. (p. 5)

    Few efforts of the newly elected governments in the country can be said to have set in place policies or practices which have challenged apartheid geography

  • Apartheid-era processes continue to shape contemporary South Africa. (p. 6)

    there are other marked continuities with the apartheid period as many of the economic and social processes that shaped South Africa's economy, cities, rural landscapes and social relations under apartheid continue to mould