From Resources to Power: The State and Spatial Change in Post-apartheid Durban, South Africa

After apartheid, local government in Durban, South Africa, attempted to break down the barriers of the apartheid city through a massive program of public investment, intended to close the economic and infrastructure gaps between race groups. The results of this program varied widely. In core areas, growth coalitions were able to influence state infrastructure development, limiting its transformative impact. In peripheral areas, wide ranging infrastructural needs, coupled with pressure on the state to deliver services quickly, resulted in rushed, substandard construction. In buffer zones, previously undeveloped areas between the core and the periphery that under apartheid had separated race groups, the state was able to construct public housing for poor Africans near both economic activity and white and Indian residential areas, an outcome previously unseen in Durban’s history. I argue that the state’s infrastructural power, varying in different parts of the city relative to the power of other actors in society, explains these results. Geocoded census and municipal infrastructure data from 1996 and 2001, together with qualitative data from key informant interviews and workshops, form the empirical basis of this article.