ECON-AD 213J | Class 15 Reflection: The future of Cape Town

The Slave Trade helped develop the Carnival musical culture that tourists enjoy around the world. When are we going to stop oppressing each other and start treating each other as equals? 

Our last class concluded with a discussion on what policy prescriptions we can offer Cape Town, after three weeks of intensively studying development and urbanization issues in South Africa. The class has been actively thinking about these issues throughout the course, and so contributions were lively. There was no ambiguity in the fact that the legacy of the apartheid persists in the way the city is organized: Cape Town CBD is located in low-density area mostly inhabited by the wealthy white population, while the majority coloured and black population live in slum areas in the CBD’s outskirts, where flooding is common and diseases rampant. Due to topographical constraints, large government housing subsidies, and simultaneous lack of rent control in informal settlements, the housing market has an inelastic supply that makes the transition into proper living conditions difficult.

Although we do not know what the proper answer is, it is clear that the current status quo cannot stand. If left unchecked, the inequality between white and black populations will continue to widen, which may pressure the latter to take measures outside proper political processes to change the situation. The CBD is a prime location for densification, because of its valuable location both in terms of property value and number of businesses set up there. Ultimately, the local government should construct a long-term plan for this transition into densifying the CBD, by first identifying the most effective ways to migrate people into the city. Buffer zones offer a promising solution. These undeveloped areas originally meant to separate races in neighborhoods can and should be developed into high-rise buildings where middle-income people can migrate. The housing that they depart from, therefore, can be used by low-income households migrating into the city. Concurrent to these urban policies, government should update its bus rapid transit (BRT) to decrease transportation costs for people migrating from Khayelitsha into the CBD, which can cost up to 25% of daily income for these families. 

This class has been phenomenal, I now see cities in a different light, in a way where I know what questions to ask with purpose and direction. I learned that changes do not happen overnight, and it requires thoughtful and engaged action, where every phase is evaluated and reevaluated in its given sociopolitical context. On that note, development projects like Wespark in the north of Cape Town as a solution to its housing problem are nothing but a pipe dream because it attempts to circumvent this process of evaluation when it is an imperative step in sustainable urban policies. We must always pursue what is right, even when the process seems arduous. Even though I may not have all the answers, knowing which direction to inquire is a powerful tool. I am excited to take the course Comparative Politics in Africa with Professor Peter van der Windt in the Spring semester, where I will continue this quest for understanding.