Reconstructing South Africa’s cities? The making of urban planning 1900–2000

TLDR: In each major case until the present, however, the programmes of progenitors of such ideas have been overtaken by the accession to power of new regimes, at government or merely planning system level, which have co-opted the new institutions, laws, visions, systems, personnel and plans as mentioned in this paper.

Abstract: During each period of extreme stress and turmoil in South Africa’s past century the idea of reconstruction has loomed large. A primary tool for reconstructing society has been presumed equally, by many parties, to lie in urban planning. As less turbulent times return, governments have attempted to reshape the society and, more particularly, the cities by developing new institutions, laws, visions, systems, personnel and plans. In each major case until the present, however, the programmes of progenitors of such ideas have been overtaken by the accession to power of new regimes, at government or merely planning system level, which have co-opted the new institutions, etc., to their own programmes; or such programmes have, less spectacularly, faded away as the complexities of government overwhelm initially exciting but idealistic visions. The paper describes aspects of the emergence and reformulation of planning at several of these stages: after the South African War, beginning in 1901; after the First World ...