Desegregating and ameliorating the township: demonstrating Lenasia as a case study
Date
2014-02-20
Authors
Daya, Priya
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Abstract
Johannesburg, historically as an apartheid city, was a segregationist city. Today, as a globally competitive city, that segregation is
being entrenched by new forms of exclusion.
This aim of this thesis is to understand the historic forces that created a segregated city and to understand the current forces that
continue to enforce segregation within the city. In understanding these forces, the thesis aims at proposing methods to overcome the
segregation within our cities. The thesis is located within the context of the township and focuses specifically on the township of
Lenasia. At the international level it explores the idea of modernism enabling social engineering and it also explores the impact that
Neoliberalism has had on cities internationally. Within the South African context the impact that modernism coupled with the
apartheid ideology resulted in the foundations of city of Johannesburg being segregated on the basis of race. The impact of
Neoliberalism on the city of Johannesburg is also explored in order to understand the new forms of segregation that is being
enforced within the city. The resulting socio-spatial segregation is explored within the context of the township of Lenasia. The key
modernist manifestation that has had a profound impact on the layout of the township is the Neighbourhood Unit. The key neoliberal
manifestation that has impacted on the study area is the gated strip mall. Theories aimed at overcoming the shortcomings of the
modernist city and the neoliberal cities include: Transport Orientated Developments; Suburban Sprawl; Retrofitting Suburbia; and The
Compact City Debate. However David Dewar’s South African Cities: A Manifesto for change was particularly important in terms of
overcoming the challenges faced within the context of the developing world where issues of integration, equity and sustainability
need to be addressed. Methods of intervention in order to overcome segregation extracted from David Dewar’s Manifesto were
extracted and applied to case study township of Lenasia.
Description
Thesis ( M.Urban Design)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, 2012.
Keywords
Urban renewal, City planning, Lenasia, Townships, South Africa