OVERCOMING INEQUALITIES IN FRACTURED CITIES IN SOUTH AFRICA: IMPLICATIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Against a background of uncertain democratic consolidation, painful economic adjustment and the persistent social inequalities, the need for sustainable urban development has become the subject of a growing debate in South Africa. These scholarly concerns are coupled with the growing public and political concerns about poverty, inequality and social exclusion. This paper engages the conceptual debate on fragile cities and sustainable urban development. It traces the trends of urban development in South Africa including the attempts at policy reform in post-1994. In so doing, the paper addresses the question of how the inherited urban development framework has been influenced by the neo-classical model of urban development of the apartheid era. The paper concludes by positioning the urban development debate in terms of what needs to be done moving forward.