ABSTRACT
This chapter engages in the debate on urban governance by proposing an empirically grounded typology of ward councillors and activists, teasing out their specific modes of political positioning during South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democracy. It highlights the significance of being racially classified by the apartheid state, through acts such as the forced removals and the development of a sense of attachment to these new segregated places. The main argument claims that people’s knowledge of and attachment to these places have proven to be resources for acting politically since the general elections signalling the end of apartheid in 1994 and have helped shape urban politics in the subsequent period.
