ABSTRACT
The current state and processes of urbanization in the homelands* confirm that the urban areas reflect the nature of South African society. Secondly, as in the rest of Africa and other Third World countries, the rapid urbanization process in the homelands, with 14.6 per cent urban population growth per annum between 1970 and 1978, has outpaced economic and particularly industrial development. In the case of the homelands a new dimension is added to the urbanization process in that it is stimulated mainly by external political ideological forces from inside 'white' South Africa. In this chapter, attention is focused on the most important processes underlying urbanization in the homelands. They also make it impossible to divorce the urbanization of the homelands from that of white South Africa. The more Blacks left the periphery to go and work in the core areas, the more economic conditions deteriorated and the more unfavourable became the climate for urbanization in the homelands.
