Africa’s urban challenges are increasingly well known and documented. But the amount of data produced on urban Africa still pales in comparison to other parts of the world.
Demolition of uninhabited shacks in Bloekombos, Kraaifontein, Cape Town, August 6, 2020. The land, which was to be developed as a community facility for neighbouring communities, has been illegally occupied by people who have been demarcating plots and building informal settlements.
Rodger Bosch/AFP
Despite millions of free homes built since 1994, spatial inequality in South Africa remains high. A study evaluating a programme to boost rentals in well-located areas found mixed results, however.
Johannesburg is the most preferred destination for jobseekers from other provinces, followed by Cape Town.
Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Johannesburg is not the most anxious or dangerous city in the world, but its global reputation, history and architecture make it a valuable site for thinking about how anxiety structures our lives.
An unemployed man in Diepsloot, Johannesburg, collects trash for resale before South Africa went into a Covid-19 lockdown.
EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook
South Africa needs to develop low-cost housing solutions that are inherently comfortable and environmentally sustainable. Green roofs could be part of these solutions.
The election will not change the government, but may change the balance of power between the two factions of the governing ANC, led by Cyril Ramaphosa and Jacob Zuma.
Graffiti in Maboneng, Johannesburg provides a bright contrast to the spaces around it.
Alexandra Parker
Chief Research Specialist in Democracy and Citizenship at the Human Science Research Council and a Research Fellow Centre for African Studies, University of the Free State
Professor of Architecture and SARChI: DST/NRF/SACN Research Chair in Spatial Transformation (Positive Change in the Built Environment), Tshwane University of Technology