Over the summer I had the opportunity to visit Stjwetla with Professor Marie Huchzermeyer as part of Northeastern's Spatial Justice Dialogue. Stjwetla is an informal settlement located northeast of Alexandra in Johannesburg. After the end of Apartheid in 1994 the South African government faced a housing crisis due to the forced removals and displacement of black communities. This combined with the lack of provided housing from the government led to the rapid development of informal settlements like Sjwetla. Informal settlements are defined as unauthorized land occupation with the intention of establishing settlements on it. Here, we are going to explore how these settlements' growth was largely influenced by the city and country's post apartheid policies.
Spatial Justice and Inequality
In terms of spatial justice, Sjwetla was important to understanding how the displacement of communities during apartheid led to not only a segregation of space, but an inequality of space and resources for black communities. As we toured the settlement, I learned that in terms of public infrastructure, people built their own houses and were completely self reliant. The entire settlement had two or three places to get water suggesting a huge lack of resources within a dense, populated space.
Since most of these settlements were built on small plots of open land the urban infrastructure is not sustainable and houses are prone to environmental factors such as flooding, which further contributes to the lack of space as the open plots of land become less safe and sustainable to build on.
The RDP Program
One of the first attempts to solve the housing crisis at the end of Apartheid was the RDP Program. Its aim was to provide beneficiaries with a fully built house, free of charge by the government. For the most part, this program was not sufficient.
As we walked throughout Stjwetla, I noticed some houses that were larger, and connected to utility poles for electricity. These larger houses were RDP houses, but around them were hundreds of shacks, showing that while the RDP was a step in the right direction, it ultimately did not meet the demand for housing. The fifty shacks to one RDP house in the area suggested that many displaced were still left without housing.
Policy Gaps and Neglect
Despite efforts towards improving informal settlement conditions, settlements such as Sjwetla have unfortunately suffered indirect consequences from policy gaps from the South African government. Informal settlements are often marginalized in urban planning and policy decisions, resulting in neglect.
In Stjwetla we saw loads of trash being dumped into the river which was a combination of housing materials from residents, trash from southern areas such as Sandton and Alexandra floating upstream, and the government dumping trash into the river. The government using informal settlements as a place to dump trash is a direct result of policy gaps and a lack of proper waste management services.
Conclusion
While the city of Johannesburg acknowledges informal settlements and has shifted attention towards its problems through policies like the RDP, the legacy of Apartheid has still created segregation and lack of space, and unequal living conditions caused by the government's policy gaps and lack of resources to allocate towards displaced communities.