ABSTRACT
South Africa has become an important site of inquiry and locale for the production and application of urban theory. But there are absences and silences. By drawing historical similarities between the cities of Pretoria/Tshwane and Bloemfontein/Mangaung in central South Africa, the argument of this chapter is that overlooking these cities has been and continues to be political. The chapter further points out how this can perpetuate the reproduction of unequal urban spaces in South Africa because of a lack of critical engagement with these cities that still fulfil important governmental functions. Drawing from feminist critiques of dominant discourses on spatial justice as well as calls for a rediscovery of the ordinary, the chapter shows how shifting the scale of urban inquiry can change the perceptions around the roles that the overlooked cities of Pretoria/Tshwane and Bloemfontein/Mangaung play and can potentially play in addressing spatial injustices of the past.
