ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a brief overview of the evolution of unequal development within South Africa since the first permanent settlement of white people in 1652. Within this over-arching framework attention is focused upon the relationships between unequal development, the imperatives of capitalism and the racist ideologies of, first, the colonial segregationist and then the Afrikaner apartheid state. The presentation of an overview of how certain pervasive aspects of the economy, society and polity are woven together will serve as a backdrop against which to set the remaining chapters, which deal in greater detail with recent changes in the structure and organization of urban life in South Africa. Yet it has attempted also to give some indication of the complexity of the issues surrounding the current debates on South Africa, debates which could well have a wider significance, for South Africa may not only be the polecat of the world but also a microcosm of it.
