ABSTRACT
Remedying the inherited disparities of apartheid has created a complicated and challenging environment for providing housing in post-apartheid South Africa. This chapter examines the historical development of housing and livelihoods during apartheid South Africa in the context of the broader political economy of the country, and with specific reference to black urban spaces. It highlights the deeply racialised and repressive character of the white state’s housing policies and programmes as well as the livelihood activities of black urban poor people living in townships. The main argument made in this chapter is that it is of utmost importance to reflect on the past to understand how the injustices of the apartheid era continue to manifest in post-apartheid South Africa and to understand the need for restructuring human settlement patterns in the post-apartheid era by the democratic state.
