Urbanisation and Apartheid - Rapid urbanisation

• Rapid urbanisation took place during the twentieth century. Cape Town became an industrial city, famous for its textile and clothing industries.

• The South African War (1899-1902) forced many people from the interior to move south to the relative safety of the Cape.

• In 1910, South Africa became a Union and Cape Town was declared the legislative capital. The Cape was no longer a British Colony but became one of four provinces. Cape Town’s economy was now linked to the economy of the whole country.

• After British rule ended in the Cape, many Afrikaners moved to Cape Town from other parts of South Africa. Developers bought up and subdivided farms north of the City and villages like Parow and Bellville developed rapidly.

• The First World War (1914-1918), the 1918 ‘flu epidemic and the Great Depression (1930’s) had a devastating impact on the economy of Cape Town. Poverty became widespread.

• Overcrowding in District Six caused many people to move to new outlying township areas like Athlone and Kew Town.

• By the first half of the 20th Century, many black South Africans were living in Cape Town. However, laws like the Location Act (1902), Urban Areas Act (1923) and Job Reservation Act (1924) limited their rights to property, movement and employment.

• During the Second World War (1939-1945), many people moved to Cape Town to work in wartime industry. A serious housing shortage resulted, prompting the Union government to implement an Influx Control policy (1945). This allowed black men to be expelled from urban areas if they were unemployed or if they committed certain offences.

Apartheid, forced removals and resistance

• In 1948 the National Party won the general elections and imposed the policy of Apartheid or “separate development” based on race. The Population Registration Act No 30 of 1950 required all people to be registered as black, coloured, Indian or white.

• Apartheid laws governed all aspects of people’s lives. Whites benefited while all other groups suffered under the unfair, repressive laws. For example, the Reservation of Separate Amenities Act (No. 49 of 1953) forced public transport and amenities to be racially segregated. The Black Education Act (No. 47 of 1953) formally segregated black education, which was poorly funded and inferior in quality to education for all other groups.

• The Group Areas Acts (e.g. No. 77 of 1957) determined where people of different race groups could live and own property. During the 1960s, many areas in Cape Town with large coloured communities were declared white group areas and coloured people were moved out and their communities broken up, despite much resistance. They were mainly moved to outlying areas of the City on the Cape Flats, e.g. Rylands, Belhar, Hanover Park, Lavender Hill and Mitchell’s Plain.

• In the early 1970s, in the far north of the present City of Cape Town, the National Party government developed the coloured township of Atlantis. Thousands of people were moved to this isolated new township where government-sponsored industries, like the manufacturing of diesel engines, were meant to provide employment. Today Atlantis remains an isolated township with high levels of unemployment.

• Apartheid removed people from familiar surroundings, destroyed established communities and separated extended families. Most people had to travel long distances to work. The new townships experienced increased social problems like gangsterism, drug and alcohol abuse and crime.

• During the Apartheid era, the south-western Cape was a Labour Preference Area for coloured people and Influx Control was strictly enforced. Black South Africans needed permission to work in Cape Town and had to carry a pass wherever they went.

• The government created self-governing “Bantu Homelands” like Transkei, Ciskei and Boputhatswana and forced black people to become citizens of homelands rather than of South Africa. This was part of a plan to make black South Africans aliens in their own country, without the right to work or own property.

• Even so, thousands of people moved to Cape Town from the Transkei and Ciskei (now parts of the Eastern Cape) to look for work. Informal settlements developed at Unibel (1972), Crossroads (1974), KTC and Modderdam (1975). Government attempts to destroy these settlements led to local and international resistance.

• The Soweto uprising of 16 June 1976 was a landmark event in South Africa. Resistance to Apartheid grew during the 1980s and became more violent. The National Party government reacted by declaring States of Emergency from 1985 to 1990. People’s rights were severely restricted, thousands were detained (often without trial) and the media were censored.

• Around the world, political and economic resistance to Apartheid also grew. South Africa became more and more isolated. It suffered economic sanctions, cultural and sports boycotts, declining tourism and numerous protests.

• Under pressure to introduce reforms, the government abolished the Influx Control Act in 1986. The population of Cape Town soared. Large numbers of job seekers along with the impact of economic sanctions resulted in high levels of unemployment in the City.

• Most of the people who moved to Cape Town after Influx Control was scrapped came from the homelands of Transkei and Ciskei. The majority settled in Khayelitsha. This township started as a windswept, sandy wasteland created by bulldozing the sand dunes, filling in the seasonal wetlands and hastily providing roads, standpipes and pit latrines.

• Urban development in Cape Town has often been rapid and poorly planned, so many parts of the City have very little public open space. The nature reserves in the lowlands of the City are therefore important sites for recreation, education and enjoyment.

Click the buttons to find out more about the history and development of Cape Town:
 

	Early people of the Cape
	Settlement and Expansion
	Urbanisation and Apartheid
	Post-Apartheid developments and challenges