ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how the idea of the Republic of Hout Bay is undone in two ways. First, despite economic, social and political relations across three adjacent communities, the area resembles the apartheid logic of spatially segregated communities divided by race, socio-economic status, and culture. Second the Hout Bay community is not self-governing in any significant way. The residents have limited influence over decision-making that affects their lives other than for the actions they take directly themselves, and the leaders of the three communities of Hout Bay often pursue contrary political ends. For Hout Bay to approach the idea of a Republic, the processes of decision-making that govern daily life need to accommodate representation, participation, and planning in the name of Hout Bay. The major socio-economic changes in Hout Bay began in the 1960s and 1970s when former farmland was sold off for residential development, and the Valley grew into a white suburb.
