The contested politics of housing allocation in Ikapa, Cape Town, 1981-1994

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volumn 36, Issue 1, 2010, Pages 133-150

  Oldfield, Sophie ^a   Zweig, Patricia ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN   (South Africa)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE; HOUSING MANAGEMENT; POLITICS; RESOURCE ALLOCATION; URBAN HOUSING;

CAPE TOWN; SOUTH AFRICA; WESTERN CAPE;

EID: 77951581611     PISSN: 03057070     EISSN: 14653893     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03057071003607378     Document Type: Article

References (80)

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22. J. Poto, 'The Viability of Black Local Authorities', in C. Heymans and H. Totemeyer, (eds), Government by the People: The Politics of Local Government in South Africa (Cape Town, Juta, 1988).
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25. quoted in M. Huchzermeyer, Unlawful Occupation: Informal Settlements and Urban Policy in South Africa and Brazil (New Jersey, Africa World Press, 2004), p. 127.
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34. Ikapa file 18/7/P.
35. For a discussion of the gendered ramifications of Crossroads mobilisations for housing in the contemporary era, see K. Benson, Crossroads Continues: Histories of Women Mobilising Against Forced Removals and for Housing in Cape Town South Africa, 1975-2005 (unpublished thesis, University of Minnesota, 2009).
36. Cole, Crossroads, pp. 1-175.
37. In some places, for instance in the documentation of the formal allocation processes in Ikapa, the article draws on the archival materials and interview discussions. In contrast, in exploring the informal processes through which allocations were centrally shaped, we draw primarily on qualitative interviews because many informal processes were not documented in official records. Researching this previously unrecorded history of township housing administration required trawling through the archives of the Ikapa Town Council. The records, mostly recorded in Afrikaans, provided a general picture of process and practice. Subsequent interviews were held with five former Ikapa officials, one former provincial administrator, and the three former Ikapa BLA councillors. The materials gathered through these interviews were cross-referenced in interviews with various other key roleplayers, including: a lawyer who had advised the Council, six New Crossroads residents of various ages, three former New Crossroads community leaders who interacted with the Council in their capacity as members of the New Crossroads Residents' Committee, two community leaders from Ikapa civic organisations, as well as with an activist who worked with the Old and New Crossroads communities for over 30 years. Collectively, these accounts described a changing landscape in which community activism became increasingly politicised at the local level, and they depicted the divisions between so-called 'insiders' and 'outsiders' and the shifting political dynamics that framed these categories. Officials were both local residents classified African and also white, resident in central, segregated white, areas of the City.
38. Interview with retired Director of Housing for the Community Services Division, Western Cape, 20 May 2005.
39. Ikapa file CCT 1/3/1/ letter dated 30/1/89.
40. Interview with retired Director of Housing for the Community Services Division, Western Cape, 20 May 2005.
41. Interview with retired Township Manager of Guguletu, 5 April 2005.
42. Ikapa Housing Allocation File, March 1988, pp. 2-3.
43. Produced by a retired Director of Housing for the Community Services Division, Western Cape, in an interview, to illustrate his point.
44. Interview with retired Township Manager of Guguletu, 5 April 2005.
45. Interview with J. Cole, Director of Mandlovu Development Institute, at her office in Cape Town, 20 May 2005.
46. Interview with an elderly member of the Crossroads Women's Committee and, founding member of the New Crossroads Residents Committee, at her home in New Crossroads, 16 July 2005.
47. In some ways, the izibonda may be construed as the forerunners of the street chairmen later established in New Crossroads, their power not grounded upon traditional familiarity alone, but on access to urban resources such as plots and houses.
48. Interview with J. Cole, Director of Mandlovu Development Institute, at her office in Cape Town, 20 May 2005.
49. In 1979 the Bantu Affairs Administration Board (BAAB) conducted a house-to-house survey of Old Crossroads, marking each shack clearly with a number. Subsequent to the survey, many more people moved onto the land, living in unnumbered shacks. The BAAB survey numbers were used by the Old Crossroads leadership to compile the allocation lists for houses in New Crossroads. Thus, an apartheid-driven process underpinned the community allocation of houses process.
50. Interview with J. Cole, 20 May 2005.
51. Interview with a retired Township Manager of Nyanga at his home in Cape Town, 11 May 2005. In the period under discussion in this article, he resided in the Ikapa area.
52. Interview with an elderly member of the Crossroads Women's Committee and founding member of the New Crossroads Residents Committee, 9 May 2005.
53. Interview with a retired Township Manager of Nyanga, 11 May 2005.
54. Ikapa Housing Allocation Committee, Agenda & Minutes, various.
55. Interview with a retired Guguletu Township Manager, at home in Guguletu, 5 April 2005.
56. Interview with an elderly member of the Crossroads Women's Committee and founding member of the New Crossroads Residents Committee, 9 May 2005.
57. Interview with a retired Township Manager of Nyanga, 11 May 2005.
58. Interview with a former Ikapa Councillor, at his home in Guguletu, 6 April 2005.
59. J. Seekings, 'The United Democratic Front in Cape Town, 1983-1986', (paper delivered at the Africa Seminar, Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town, 1992).
60. Interview, 8 April 2005.
61. Interview with an elderly member of the Crossroads Women's Committee and founding member of the New Crossroads Residents Committee, 9 May 2005.
62. Interview with a founding member of WECCA and community leader, at his office in Cape Town, 8 April 2005.
63. Interview with an elderly member of the Crossroads Women's Committee and founding member of the New Crossroads Residents Committee, 9 May 2005.
64. Cole, Crossroads.
65. Interview with a member of the Crossroads Women's Committee, 9 May 2005. For an extensive discussion of the consequences of these politics for those who fled New Crossroads, see Benson, Crossroads Continues.
66. Interview with a founding member of WECCA and community leader, 8 April 2005.
67. Quoted from an interview with an ex-Councillor for the New Crossroads area who was born in Old Crossroads and later moved to New Crossroads where he became the chairman of his street committee. He later became a local SANCO official before being appointed in 1995 as councillor for New Crossroads, a position he has since vacated.
68. Interview with a retired Township Manager of Nyanga, 11 May 2005.
69. Interview with a founding member of WECCA and a community leader, 8 April 2005.
70. J. Werge, 'Civic Associations in the Cape Metropolitan Area: The Geography of an Urban Social Movement' (Honours thesis, University of Stellenbosch, 1992).
71. Interview with a founding member of WECCA and a community leader, 8 April 2005.
72. Interview with an elderly member of the Crossroads Women's Committee, 9 May 2005.
73. Interview with a retired Township Manager of Nyanga, 11 May 2005.
74. Archives 7/3/1/102, Agendas, minutes and reports, organisations and institutions: SANCO, 1994.
75. B. Bozzoli, Women of Phokeng: Consciousness, Life Strategies and Migrancy in South Africa 1900-1983 (Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1991), p. 1.
76. Parnell and Mabin, 'Rethinking Urban South Africa', p. 46.
77. R. Fincher, 'The Political Economy of the Local State', in R. Peet and N. Thrift (eds), New Models in Geography Volume One (London, Unwin Hyman, 1989), p. 344.
78. See C. Cross, 'Informal Tenure in South Africa: Systems of Transfer and Succession' (Report to the Centre for Social Development Studies, University of Natal, 1993), p. 3
79. and C. Cross, 'Local Governance and Social Conflict: Implications for Piloting South Africa's New Housing Plan in Cape Town's Informal Settlements', in M. Huchzermeyer and A. Karam (eds), Informal Settlements: A Perpetual Challenge? (Cape Town, University of Cape Town Press, 2006).
80. S. Oldfield and J. Boulton, 'Through the Back Door: Young People's Gendered Negotiation of the Housing Crisis in Cape Town, South Africa', in M. Mapetla, and A. Schlyter (eds), Gender, Generation, and Everyday Living in Southern African Cities (Roma, Lesotho, Institute of Southern African Studies, 2005).