Review Of Urban Development In Johannesburg

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Introduction 1

Early Johannesburg 1

Gold Rush 6

Apartheid Johannesburg 3

Current Johannesburg 5

Conclusion 8

Introduction

Johannesburg - southern Africa’s most prosperous city. Covering a land area of about 1.300km2, almost 100km in length and 60km in breath, making it unusually large in size. Density wise it hosts an average of 2 200 people per kilometre square. The cities blend of first and third world's making it the foremost city in Africa. The citie's name originally came from two gold prospectors whose first name was Johannes, however it still remains questionable. Transport lanes of the N1,N3 and N12 merge into Johannesburg facilitating freight in and out of the city. Johannesburg's uncontained urban sprawl continue to stain the surrounding areas as it keeps getting bigger every year. The southern part of the city, Sandton another important sub note, of Johannesburg is hosts part of South Africa’s wealthiest business and career driven people or "yuppies" so to speak. (BRUYN et al, 2012)

Northern parts of the city is dominated by skyscrapers and massive concrete warehouses. International air transport and freight at O.R. Tambo Airport makes it the busiest airport in Southern Africa, situated in one of Johannesburg's inner urban centres called Kempton Park. Pretoria, situated in the North, was once separate but has not been joined through expanding socio-economic interests, such as industry and real estate developments. (BRUYN et al, 2012) This essay will take a critical overview of the urban change in Johannesburg, by firstly defining some historic facts and key moments such as the gold rush and British rule. From there it will develop a broad overview of Johannesburg's early urbanization history. Then it will discuss how Apartheid shaped the city's appearance and lastly it will review some post-apartheid strategies and problems facing the city and current day urbanization patterns.

Early Urbanization in Johannesburg

Although Johannesburg is nearly a concrete jungle in every direction, yet this appearance of intense urbanization was completely foreign to its inhabitants in the early 1800’s. Several archaeological remains of tribes such as Sotho’s and Tswana’s are found in and near the Johannesburg area, where farming with live stock were practised. Interestingly enough evidence of smelted copper and tin is also discovered from these previous inhabitants, which in a sense was a small precursor of the coming Gold rush. Some of these tribes were Christianised by missionaries travelling with explorers. (MASON, 1986). Some of the historic sites is dated at 12 century BC. Copper furnaces and smelting sites serves as a reminder of how wealthy this area is in terms of mineralogical value.

Early Zululand conflicts have inevitable driven original tribes away from this area, which is the reason why very few tribes were found near this area when the first 'civilized people' arrived. The Anglo-Zulu War in 1876 really diminish Zulu rule in this areas. As stated in "The Reduction of Zululand (1878-1904)"(CARTON, 2000). Amongst the famous conflict in this time period was Mecane or Difaqane wars. The Ndebele however was one of the side lines of the Zulu tribe settle in this area, near the current day Pretoria, also known as the KwaNdebele Kingdom. The KwaNdebele became a self-governed homeland during the apartheid era, which plays a small part in the urban landscape of macro Johannesburg. (KRUGER et. al. 1988).

Around 1830, Dutch settlers arrived in the interior of South Africa. They joint partnered with the Sotho and Tshwane’s to invade the Matebele in this area. Through their efforts Rustenburg and Pretoria were founded. Their dominance in this area Johannesburg (which only came into existence later) became part of the Republic of South Africa, known as the Transvaal Republic.

The Gold Rush

Few moment in South African History was as crucial as the discovery of gold in the surroundings of Johannesburg. One can rightly say, it was the turning point from "cattle grazing to concrete jungle" in little over a hundred years. 1880’s, prospectors discovered gold near Barberton and the Witwatersrand area. In 1986 two surveyors named Johannes discovered Gold in the present day Johannesburg itself. This triggered massive influxes of people not only from the interior of South Africa and its coastal regions but also other continents. It was reported that during the Gold rush that Johannesburg experienced the largest up-country traffic on record (ROSENTHAL, 1970). The arrival of wagons pulled by cattle and men and woman in search for future .Although the town was only situated about 55km south of Pretoria (capital of the Zuid-Afrikaanse Republiek ZAR), it became a bustling bee hive of miners from every continent such as Britain, North America and Europe.

Urbanization took place on a informal level, where structures were mostly temporal in nature such as tents and tin shack provided accommodation in the early days of the Gold Rush. (Unknown, 1929) However as Johannesburg’s population became larger, geographical lines were drawn to separate classes, which resulted in different settlement patterns. Although Johannesburg could only ‘boast’ of a few tin shacks and tents, it was modernized in a very brief period of 14 years when British troop marched their way into Johannesburg during the Boer War at 30 May 1900 after some conflict in the south of the cities exterior boundaries. Gold attracted the boom and growth of modern day Johannesburg, it also set the scene for the Second Boer War (BRANDT, 2006).

The British Empire esteemed Gold valuable enough to wage war about, and it did just that during the 1899-1902 period. Through this overthrow of White South African (Mostly Voortrekkers), the British completely transformed RSA’s political, social and economic realities. Skilled British mining engineers and economist were imported to the Johannesburg region to ensure British rule and dominance in the Gold sector in the Transvaal Republic. Due to the war, labour shortages were created on the mining fields and imported labour was made necessary. Chinese labourers came in their numbers to fill in the gaps created the Second Boer War. After the war, some of the Chinese stayed on and became part to the Asian landscape of Johannesburg, nick named ‘China Town’ today (LANGE, 2003).

During this period the white working class was desperate for stabilization since most of the intellectual, social and economic capital where obliterated by the realities of the Second Boer War. British were in favour of the development of the white South African and several development incentives were made available to them to improve their status. Census information from 1896 showed 5,624 white families which increased to 14,371 families in 1904. The attraction of Gold and future socio-economic welfare made Johannesburg highly attractive. As white families moved to urban Johannesburg, which came mostly from farms nearby, their black labourers came along. (LANGE, 2003)

Urban influxes in Johannesburg were regulated by creation and passing of the Natives Urban Act in 1903 and Natives Land Act in 1904 (by then the population was 83,363 white and 72,279 black) which gave the whites superior spatial privileges in Johannesburg area. The unfortunate black labourers where either hosted separately in townships, or at best given the right to stay with their owner. Segregation in Johannesburg began to show vivid line of separation between white and non-white during this era (LANGE, 2003).

The ideology of "White Man’s Town in a White Man’s Country" came from the formation of 1910 Union. This pressed the government to enforce racial zoning in Johannesburg. Almost all of the neighbourhoods currently in Johannesburg’s predominantly white area had an ‘outcry’ against black and coloured invasion during some stage or another. By 1916 the Johannesburg Federation of Ratepayers Associations (JFRA), took the lead in forming new policies which include new racial zoning boundaries, as time went by this association become stronger and eventually took the majority of seats in the municipal council in 1923. From 1911-1935 immigration figures for Indians went from 5,000 to 10,000. Although Blacks experience grate oppression and denial of basic human rights their number increased from 100,000 to 219,000. (NIGHTINGALE, 2012)

Most of the working in the Johannesburg area were employed on the mines. Others who were not formally employed such as hawkers, brewers, merchants lived in downtown Johannesburg near most businesses, municipal offices and paying customers. From 1911-1935 the cities slum sector increase several fold. The reason being was to avoid transport cost, by staying in these slums people were closer to their employment base. (NIGHTINGALE, 2012)

However due to transport improvement such as passenger trains, the idea of staying 30 minutes away from the city was not so absurd anymore. The Johannesburg council provided subsidies to the train companies, which led to the increase of daily migrant workers in Johannesburg which stayed outside the city in townships (NIGHTINGALE, 2012).

Most blacks and Indians did not live on their employment premises, but rented rooms in downtown Johannesburg, which made them subject to abusive landlords. British rule fell in favour of whites, which pressed that all black title deeds should be resigned and transferred to a government trustee. However this effort failed. This led to small scale developments through buying land near Johannesburg and making it available as private property to blacks. For example Herman Tobiansky, started Sophiatown 6 km south of Johannesburg. However whites didn’t approve of it and even content for plots to establish some kind of buffer zone. This is just one of the examples of how many court cases were fought in Johannesburg to maintain segregated developments (TOMILSON, 2003).

Urban Development under Apartheid in Johannesburg

When evaluating urban change in South African, apartheid can never be of neglected since it was to the most rigorous spatial reorganization of urban space anywhere in the world. Apartheid in Johannesburg is marked by the displacement and exclusion of blacks in general from the urban space during the white minority rule. (MURRAY, 2008)

During the new legislation of the 1955 Natives (Urban Areas) Amendment Act, was focussed on removing black occupants in the central city area. Out migration in areas such as Newclare, Sophiatown, Western Native Township, Hillbrow, Eastern Native Township occurred. Verwoerd (President of SA) suggested five black servants per flat was to be the maximum to prevent overcrowding. Most of the people who were moved from central Joburg (about 10 000) were hosted in the South Western Townships (which later became Soweto) in hostels which were predominantly single gender. The passing of the 1945 Natives (Urban Areas) Consolidation Act provided the necessary legislation to have sufficient control in Townships until the making of the Black Communities Development Act in 1984. Much of the black immigration were reversed to homelands, which had a minor change on Johannesburg’s periphery areas (CRISTOPHER, 1994)

The south western parts of Johannesburg were mostly occupied by illegal land occupants, who secured space through land invasions. Most of these residents were squatters. Life in general was hard, for most residents only a struggle to survive. Johannesburg didn't provide much in terms of infrastructure for its greatest township, no electricity was installed either. Soweto gained world recognition when the Soweto uprising occurred here in the 1970s (FINNEGAN, 1988).

Much distinction in terms of race and space start to emerge from the 1960's decentralization of the CBD, in particular the shopping centres, which moved further out. This process is still going on in Johannesburg's CBD. For example many large stores, wholesalers, street merchants is has become more focused on the low income black market, than the middle to high income white residents. The start of migrant workers, such as crafts, entertainment and obviously food had their origins around this era, although on a small scale at first, not like today's bustling market areas in central Johannesburg. This decentralization of the CBD from the 1960's was also triggered by Johannesburg's rising "crime and grime", this in a sense pushed retail markets to relocate (TOMILSON, 2003).

Infrastructure wise, Johannesburg majored in construction, especially transport. Grand scale erections of freeways and manufacturing companies next to it. Such developments as these served as pull factors that served as a facilitation in the rapid urbanization of Johannesburg (TOMILSON, 2003).

As of the 1960’s and 1970’s massive expansions toward the northern parts of the city occurred with the erection of the Carlton Centre and Southern Life Centre. This is particularly interesting since the northern parts of Johannesburg was always predominantly white, except Alexandra. So new developments here was definitely in favour of the whites. Many of Johannesburg’s middle class lived in neighbourhoods with rows and rows of almost identical housing units, each with a prominent motor garage. (GINSBERG, 2011). High rising building filled the skyline of Johannesburg, giving the central city a vivid appearance of first world cities. 1973 mark the pening of Sandton City. Rosebank Mall in 1976, and Eastgate in 1979 (TOMILSON, 2003).

During the 1980’s which was known as the greying process where black wage earners moved into the inner city residential areas, which caused the white dominant rule to quickly disbanded itself as subsequent ‘white flights’ occurred. Although this was beneficial to black’s, many of the economic stable white residents moved away or abroad. This process brought in black temporal workers averaging on temporal jobs which inevitable had an effect on the urban quality of these areas (MARTIN, 2011).

Current Urbanization Patterns in Johannesburg

Even after apartheid or post-apartheid era, many topographical features such as streets, spatial imbalances in the urban space, like segregated living spaces has been concrete cast into the city's urban mould, and won't easily be removed in the next few decades or so. Spatial separation and racial divisions still remains a prominent characteristics of Johannesburg's urban space (MURRAY, 2008).

When looking at Johannesburg form a spatial-temporal view point, one can conclude that cities are living organisms rather that dead organized spaces. Reason being is that cities respond to factors such as migration, immigration, economic progress or recession is a very spontaneous ways. For example changing dynamics of growth and stagnation, expansion and contraction, and decay are central factors when it comes to city-building processes. (MURRAY, 2008)

Current day Johannesburg serves as a international node for finance, industry and trade. Johannesburg’s current urban geography includes its dense concentration of office blocks in its Central Business District (Braamfontein in particular). Others areas are high density apartment blocks for residential purposes in Joubert Park, Hillbrow and other lower density neighbourhoods such as Bertrams, Lorentzville, Troyeville, Doornfontein. Most of the residential properties varies from free standing holdings to medium dense apartments or flats. The high class may have the privileges of large scale real estate, or large scale properties with rental units belonging to the South African Owners Association (SAPOA), and other like entrepreneurs, retirees and pensioners who rent houses to improve their income (MURRAY, 2008).

An interesting point of note, is the downward spiral of decay in Zone 4 (Hillbrow, Berea, Yeoville, Troyeville, Judith’s Paarl, Bertrams, and Doornfontein) in Johannesburg, for nearly two decades now. It hosts a large population of African migrants and black job seekers, who is desperate for low cost housing. The inside story of this decay is that white developers, bought this residential space, who refuse to put any capital into this areas to improve it but rather to impoverish it as a revenge motive against current government. So this decaying notion in Zone 4 and spreading can quite readily be seen as a ‘black-spot’ in its plan for revitalization. Other with entrepreneurial mind sets have bought property in these areas, with the intent in transforming it into large scale rental units by charging ridiculous rates. Even criminal gangs have seized some of the property to host stolen goods and illegal activities such drug dealing and prostitution and moreover to use it as beachheads to launch their criminal businesses.(MURRAY, 2008) Also known as a space where anything may happen. *Before this steps of decay, Hillbrow, Berea and Joubert Park was once a affluent neighbourhoods which came out of the ‘boom’ after the Second World War (MURRAY, 2011).

Apart from the influence of apartheid many efforts of regenerating life in the cities lifeless spaces has been going on since is became urbanized. For example projects which have their origins mostly in European cities is being implemented on grand scale to reverse or halt city decay, by breathing new vigour into these areas in terms of economic and social advancement. One might say a ‘face lift’ to an old city by means of investment opportunities, creating new business locations and providing new leisure and entertainment activities. Johannesburg has been keen to develop in two specific areas which is material prosperity and cultural diversity (MURRAY, 2008).

Johannesburg is still trying to make a successful transition from what is the common industrial city to a post-industrial metropolis, like cities as Glasgow, Amsterdam and Barcelona have done. For this Johannesburg is continuously working on strategies to increase the quality of life, work environment, accessibility to services and sustainable development. To successfully do this work of revitalization in the old urban space, municipal authorities are investing in private developments in targeted locations. (MURRAY, 2008)

Although Johannesburg is developing its urban space quit rapidly, many problems still lie lurking in the background such as abandoned space of perverse use, social disorders or the inner city, degrading infrastructure, rising criminality, insufficient social services, just to mention a few. To overcome these obstacles, developing trends may be more of ‘two step forward and one step backward’. Also clashing interests or called "frictions of space" which is key components in city development. (MURRAY, 2008)

Conclusion

Johannesburg, termed the "City of Gold", is currently the biggest urban space in South Africa. Urbanized in a very short period of time, which is about 140 years since the first prospectors discovered gold in this area around 1886. This key history event triggered rapid urbanization. Although Johannesburg no longer major in mining, it still remains most prominent for commerce on national and international level. The British conquered Johannesburg in 1900, and firmly established itself in terms of the mining industry such as Anglo-America. Labour shortages during the second Boer War, brought Asians to this area, such as Indians and Chinese. Since the passing of several Native Land usage acts, Johannesburg underwent significant change in terms of segregation between white and black. Although blacks were opressed their number still increased steadily due to employment opportunities. Transport advancement enabled workers to live further form work. Most relocated citizens during Apartheid were either in their homelands or dumped as squatter in Soweto.

The decentralization of the CBD due to crime started since the 1960's. Great developments in terms of infrastructure served as pull factors and facilitated Johannesburg's expanding urgan space. Large scale expantions toward the northern part of the city which is predominantly white happened during the 1960s-1970s. The opening of Sandton City occurred in 1973 and the building of the Carlton Centre was among the developments. As of the 1980's white minority rule start to diminish and greying of white areas occurred. Deterioation of suburbs such as Hillbrow and Joubert Park occurred as a result. Many challenging problems such a criminality and inadequate social services is still rampant and continue to undermine the vision of a successful post-industrial metropolis.