ABSTRACT
Maputo, the capital of a country considered one of the emerging economies in Africa, as a result of the discovery and exploitation of strategic natural resources, is crossing what R. Rolnik describes as a ‘colonisation of the urban land and housing by the global finance’. This chapter presents the future of what Lefebvre designated as ‘prohibited places’. In most of the peripheral neighbourhoods, the local government’s engagement in the division of land, urban upgrading and land regularisation reveals another perception of the territory and other interests and strategies. A strong alliance between the political power and economic power is also present in the (re)construction of structural roadways and megaprojects and, finally, in the elaboration of the partial urbanisation plans. The use of expropriation for ‘public interest’, a concept coated with contradictions and ambiguities, aims at the improvement of the accessibility and, with it, the promotion of the parallel real estate market, opening new ways and possibilities for business.
