Johannesburg: changing patterns in the city - Hodder Education Magazines

Changing patterns in the city

Johannesburg grew up under the apartheid system and therefore has a unique urban structure. Its high levels of social and economic inequality and racial residential segregation are a direct legacy of apartheid. This article looks at how residential patterns have changed since the end of apartheid. It straddles A-level topics including world cities and managing urban change, development, population and migration, and rebranding places.

Paul Webber

Soweto. Rows of matchbox houses and in the foreground informal housing. The public telephone in the container illustrates the flourishing of services in Soweto since apartheid ended

Johannesburg is one of the world’s youngest cities. It began as a tented encampment serving the gold mines of the Witwatersrand, a series of rocky ridges in which gold was discovered in 1886. Johannesburg grew rapidly as migrants flooded into the city seeking work in the mines and factories. Within 10 years it had become South Africa’s largest city with a population of 80,000. Johannesburg has developed to become South Africa’s industrial, commercial and financial centre, with a population today of over 3 million.

Residential segregation based on race occurred in the city from the start. Although racial segregation became formal policy under the apartheid system in the 1940s (Inset 1), areas were being set aside for the city’s non-white population as early as 1887. As the city grew these areas became absorbed and new areas were designated for the black, Indian and Cape coloured populations respectively, this time beyond the city’s boundaries. Racial residential segregation became official policy with the Group Areas Act of 1948 which made it illegal for black Africans to rent or buy property in white designated areas of the city.