Housing the Nation? : Post-Apartheid Public Housing Provision in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

Abstract: The main objective of the thesis is to critically analyse local modes of post-apartheid public housing provision in the context of nation-building and democratisation in South Africa. The focus in the study is set on the new housing policy in South Africa, launched in 1994, and its implementation on local government level during the time period 1994-2003.In the thesis a view of public housing provision is advocated that takes account of its territorial, institutional and symbolical elements. A conceptual model on state space production draws attention to the spatial elements of the state, i.e. its territorial and institutional organisation, as well as the discursive production of mental and symbolic spaces, wherein practices of the state are made legitimate. This perspective has been chosen as a means to analyse local housing development within the societal structure. An underlying assumption in the study is that local modes of public housing provision are influenced by previous state forms, spatial practices and the politics of place. Specific geographical attention is directed to the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. The empirical part of the thesis consists of three case studies, which incorporate semi-structured interview material, official statistics and data on housing delivery.The analysis of the case studies finds that in the rural areas of the Eastern Cape Province, where local government institutions have been absent or weak during the 1990s, there have been little prospect of public housing provision. Obstacles for rural housing development are embedded in the inflexibility of current policies and legacies of the colonial- as well as apartheid state eras. Furthermore, case study findings indicate that local as well as external socio-political practices seem to hamper the process of institutionalising developmental post-apartheid local government, the institution that has been tasked to guide local development in the post-apartheid era.