Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-02T22:21:57.690Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

PLATINUM CITY AND THE NEW SOUTH AFRICAN DREAM

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2012

Dinah Rajak
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Much has been written about the persistence of economic apartheid, inscribed in the geography of South Africa's cities, producing spatial configurations that are reminiscent of the old order of segregation while simultaneously embodying the particular inequities and divisions of the new neo-liberal order (Turok 2001; Harrison 2006). Through an ethnographic study of Rustenburg, the urban hub of South Africa's platinum belt (once labelled the ‘fastest growing city in Africa’ after Cairo), I explore how the failure of urban integration maps onto the failure of the promise of market inclusion. What is particular about mid-range towns such as Rustenburg is that the opportunities of ‘empowerment through enterprise’ are seen, or believed, to be all the more attainable than in large cities. Here the extended supply chains of the mining industry and the expanding secondary economy appear to offer limitless possibilities to share in the boons of the platinum boom. Yet as this account shows, the disjuncture and friction between corporate authority and local government have given rise to increasing fragmentation and exclusion, as only a very few are able to grasp the long-anticipated rewards of the new South African dream.

Résumé

On a beaucoup écrit sur la persistance de l'apartheid économique inscrit dans la géographie des villes d'Afrique du Sud, en créant des configurations spatiales évocatrices de l'ancien ordre de ségrégation tout en incarnant simultanément les inégalités et les divisions particulières du nouvel ordre néolibéral (Turok 2001; Harrison 2006). À travers une étude ethnographique de Rustenburg, centre urbain de la région du platine en Afrique en Sud (autrefois qualifiée de « ville dont le rythme de croissance est le plus élevé en Afrique après Le Caire »), l'auteur explore le lien entre l’échec de l'intégration urbaine et l’échec de la promesse d'un marché inclusif. Les villes moyennes comme Rustenburg ont pour particularité le fait que les opportunités de « renforcement de l'autonomie par l'entreprise » sont perçues comme étant plus accessibles que dans les grandes villes, ou censées l’être. Les chaînes d'approvisionnement étendues de l'industrie minière et l’économie secondaire en expansion semblent y offrir des possibilités illimitées de profiter du partage des fruits du boom du platine. Pourtant, comme le rapporte cet article, la disjonction et la friction entre les entreprises et l'administration locale ont renforcé la fragmentation et l'exclusion, rares étant ceux à même de cueillir les fruits tant attendus du nouveau rêve sud-africain.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 82 , Issue 2 , May 2012 , pp. 252 - 271
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Anglo American (2003) ‘Economic Assessment Toolbox (SEAT) overview’. London: Anglo American PLC.Google Scholar
Anglo American (2005) ‘Report to society: a climate of change’. London: Anglo American PLC.Google Scholar
Platinum, Anglo (2008) ‘Annual Report 2008’, Volume 1 and Volume 2 (‘Sustainable Development’).Google Scholar
Barnes, M. and Prior, D. (2009) Subversive Citizens: power, agency and resistance in public services. Bristol: Policy Press.Google Scholar
Blim, M. (2005) ‘The moral significance of petty capitalism’ in Smart, A. and Smart, J. (eds), Petty Capitalists and Globalization: flexibility, entrepreneurship and economic development. Albany NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Bozzoli, B. with Nkotsoe, M. (1991) The Women of Phokeng: consciousness, life strategy and migrancy in South Africa 1900–1983. Portsmouth NH: Heineman Educational Books.Google Scholar
Carstens, P. (2001) In the Company of Diamonds: De Beers, Kleinzee, and the control of a town. Athens OH: Ohio University Press.Google Scholar
Comaroff, J. and Comaroff, J. L. (2000) ‘Millennial capitalism: first thoughts on a second coming’, Public Culture 12 (2): 291–344.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, F. (1987) On the African Waterfront: urban disorder and transformation of work in colonial Mombasa. Newhaven CT: Pale University Press.Google Scholar
Cruikshank, B. (1999) The Will to Empower: democratic citizens and other subjects. Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dolan, C. and Johnstone-Louis, M. (2011) ‘Re-siting corporate responsibility: the making of South Africa's Avon entrepreneurs’, Focaal 60: 21–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dolan, C. and Scott, L. (2009) ‘Lipstick evangelism: Avon trading circles and gender empowerment in South Africa’, Gender and Development 17 (2): 203–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, J. (1999) Expectations of Modernity: myths and meanings of urban life on the Zambian Copperbelt. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Ferguson, J. (2005) ‘Seeing like an oil company: space, security and global capital in neoliberal Africa’, American Anthropologist 107 (3): 377–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fumanti, M. (2007) ‘Imagining post-apartheid society and culture: playfulness, officialdom and civility in a youth elite club in northern Namibia’, in Melber, H. (ed.), Transitions in Namibia: which changes for whom? Uppsala: Nordic African Institute.Google Scholar
Hamann, R. (2004) ‘Corporate Social Responsibility in Mining in South Africa’. PhD thesis, University of East Anglia.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrison, E. (2012 forthcoming) ‘Performing partnership: invited participation and old people's forums’, Human Organisation.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrison, P. (2006) ‘On the edge of reason: planning and urban futures in Africa’, Urban Studies 43 (2): 319–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, D. (2011) ‘The return of the broker: consensus, hierarchy and choice in South African land reform’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 17 (2): 318–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khumalo, S. (2009) ‘World Cup revs up tourism in Rustenburg’, Mail and Guardian, 24 June.Google Scholar
Mabe, T. (2005) ‘State of the City address to the official opening of council’, Rustenburg Civic Centre, 18 March 2005.Google Scholar
Manson, A. and Mbenga, B. (2003) ‘“The richest tribe in Africa”: platinum mining and the Bafokeng in South Africa's North West Province, 1965–1999’, Journal of Southern African Studies 29 (1): 25–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ong, A. (2006) Neoliberalism as Exception: mutations in sovereignty and citizenship. Durham NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Parnell, S., Pieterse, E., Simon, D. and Simone, A. (2010) Urban Imperatives for Africa: transcending policy inertia. Cape Town: African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town.Google Scholar
Pieterse, E. (2009) ‘Post-apartheid geographies in South Africa: why are urban divides so persistent?’, paper presented at the conference on ‘Interdisciplinary Debates on Development and Cultures: Cities in Development – Spaces, Conflicts and Agency’, Leuven University, 15 December 2009.Google Scholar
Associates, Plan (2001) ‘Greater Rustenburg informal housing strategy’. Compiled for the Housing Strategy Forum, Rustenburg.Google Scholar
RLM (Rustenburg Local Municipality) (2005) ‘Draft Integrated Development Plan 2005/2006’. Rustenburg: RLM.Google Scholar
Robinson, J. (1997) ‘The geopolitics of South African cities: states, citizens and territory’, Political Geography 16 (5): 365–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, J. (2006) ‘Inventions and interventions: transforming cities – an introduction’, Urban Studies 43 (2): 251–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, J. (2008) ‘Developing ordinary cities: city visioning processes in Durban and Johannesburg’, Environment and Planning A, 40 (1): 74–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southall, R. and Melber, H. (2010) A New Scramble for Africa: imperialism, investment and development. Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.Google Scholar
Turok, I. (2001) ‘Persistent polarisation post-apartheid? Progress towards urban integration in Cape Town’, Urban Studies 38 (13): 2349–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zwennis, V. (2003) ‘The ultimate entrepreneur?’, Lebone (October): 16.Google Scholar