ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the proposition around the question of what 'spatial transformation' means in relation to 'new geographies of exclusion' and 'landscapes of wealth' in Johannesburg. The proposition is explored through a consideration of the contemporary contests over the land once envisaged as the bold plan for what was known as 'New South', around the old Crown Mines in the south of Johannesburg. From the 1950s onwards through the process of Forced Removals and the notorious Group Areas Act, the city was firmly established with business and industrial zones, white suburbs and black, Coloured and Indian designated Group Areas. The town and township were divided by large tracts of open ground into buffer zones of separation. Under these conditions of uncertain tenure, people negotiated their access to the city in extraordinary ways. From the 1880s, the spatial history of Johannesburg developed largely via a process of the addition of various farms and state-owned land rather than through deliberate planning processes.
