ABSTRACT
In August and September 2003, the City of Johannesburg engaged in public hearings on enclosed neighbourhoods, one type of gated community in South Africa, to obtain public input from a wide range of stakeholders. At the public hearings, one resident accused the city council of allowing the creation of ‘luxury laagers’ for the wealthy. This indicated that gated communities and, more specifically, physical intervention in the form of creating barriers is perceived as building ‘laagers’ that will adversely affect those outside these closures. Laagers refer to the camps that were defended by a circular formation of wagons, created by the colonial settlers in Africa to defend themselves from attacks by the indigenous population. Given this, the word often has a negative connotation related to the history within the country. This raises several questions about the historical connections of certain forms of physical intervention and its linkages to the past. How far can some groups go to protect themselves and what memories does this reignite in a country with a long history of segregation?
