ABSTRACT
Several concessions towards the Black population of the townships were introduced by the South African government in the period following the Soweto uprising of 1976. Amongst them were relaxations in the controls over housing tenure and the adoption of hitherto forbidden self-help housing strategies for squatters and the homeless. The proposition is advanced in this chapter that the housing dispensations granted by the state are primarily functional to the interests of capital in their underlying purpose and do not present a genuine relaxation of control over Black development or a transfer of power in the realm of urban affairs. In the late 1960s the South African government planned the new township of Mabopane some 30 km to the north of Pretoria as a suitable location for the Black residents of the city who were to be displaced by the ‘white by night’ policy.
