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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Housing provision and the need for an urbanisation policy in the new South Africa |
Authors: | Crankshaw, Owen Parnell, Susan |
Year: | 1996 |
Periodical: | Urban Forum |
Volume: | 7 |
Issue: | 2 |
Pages: | 232-237 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | labour migration workers' housing housing policy |
External link: | https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF03036764 |
Abstract: | The aim of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) is to redress the inequalities created by apartheid in South Africa. This paper shows that apartheid urbanization policies prevented the populations of rural districts and displaced urban settlements from participating fully in urban labour markets. Under these conditions, Africans were forced to become migrant labourers. The paper argues that the State's new housing policy reinforces these apartheid patterns of urbanization. Furthermore, in an effort to redress the injustices of apartheid, the State now provides migrant labourers with subsidies to upgrade their hostel accommodation. So, instead of taking a policy choice to either dismantle or to encourage labour migrancy, the State's housing policy endorses the status quo by providing accommodation which meets the particular needs of circular migrants. The State's policy on hostels is premised on the belief that, now that apartheid is gone, labour migrancy will gradually disappear. However, persistent circular labour migration is a feature of many developing countries which have not attempted to control urbanization through policies such as influx control. Bibliogr. |