Desegregation in Namibia: the demise of urban apartheid?

Geoforum, Vol. 17. No. 2, pp. 289-307, 1986 001~7185/8613.00+0.0

Printed in Great Britain Pergamon Journals Ltd.

Desegregation in Namibia: the Demise of Urban Apartheid?

DAVID SIMON,* Leeds, U.K.

Abstract: Namibia is distinctive in southern Africa as the region’s last colony. Furthermore, the liberation struggle is not being waged against a distant metropolitan power but Namibia’s dominant neighbour, South Afi%ca. These circumstances have had a profound impact on the evolution of Namibia’s colonial political economy and urban structure, while simultaneously imposing major constraints on the scope for postcolonial transformation. This study is situated within the theoretical debates on colonial urban development and urban change, and on segregation in capitalist cities. The decolonialization process is examined with respect primarily to urban desegregation in Windhoek after 1977, when arrangements for an ostensible transition to independence began. Attention is devoted to its extent and pattern, its racial and class implications, the perceptions and behaviour of various key actors and groups, and the contradictions and limitations inherent in such reforms. Finally, some thoughts are offered on the prospects for transformation after independence and the implications for South Africa’s current haltering reforms of the apartheid system.

Introduction

Today Namibia remains southern Africa’s last non- sovereign territory in defiance of world opinion and despite Africa’s second-longest liberation struggle. Crucially, this is being waged against Namibia’s aggressive and regionally dominant neighbour, South Africa, rather than some distant metropolitan power. This geographical contiguity is an important factor underlying not only the form and intensity of South Africa’s colonial endeavours but also her tenacity in seeking to retain control and, indeed, her ability thus far to do so. After assuming the League of Nations Mandate for the former German colony of South West Africa in 1919, South Africa sought by various means to annex or incorporate the territory. By the early 1970s Namibia had in effect become a fifth South African province. Much of South Africa’s apartheid legislation, with the notable exception of the notorious Group Areas Act of 1950, was implemented in Namibia by proclamation. Bantustans were being developed

*Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, U.K.

along South African lines while white politics were fully integrated with those of South Africa.

The Portuguese coup of April 1974, which precipi- tated the liberation of Angola and Mozambique, heralded a dramatic redrawing of the political map of southern Africa and indeed hastened the process of decolonization in the entire subcontinent. South Africa’s strategic response involved an end to direct attempts at Namibian incorporation and led in time to the evolution of a two-track policy. On one hand, South Africa has recognized the right of Namibia to eventual independence and engaged in long, tor- tuous negotiations with the United Nations and the Western Contact Group apparently towards that end. On the other hand, Pretoria has proceeded with a series of measures which can best be described as attempts to foist a neo-colonial solu- tion on the territory through internal arrangements not recognized by the international community. These measures are designed to pre-empt independence being achieved under a government dominated by the South West African People’s Organization (SWAPO), the major liberation movement, which began its armed struggle for Namibian independence and socialist transformation in 1966 (for

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details, see MOORSOM, 1980; ABRAHAMS, 1981; SWAPO, 1981; SIMON, 1983a, 198%).

South Africa’s appointment of an Administrator- General in September 1977, ostensibly to prepare the territory for UN supervised elections and internationally recognized independence, marked the beginning of a transitional period during which most racially discriminatory legislation has in fact been repealed. Initially the Administrator-General himself held all powers, but between May 1979 and January 1983 legislative and -executive autho~ty rested with the National Assembly and its Ministers’ Council, South Africa’s protege ‘autonomous’ central government for Namibia. These institutions were controlled by the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA), a grouping of specifically ‘moderate’ ethnic parties. Unable to prove that it could act sufficiently independently, the National Assembly lost credibility and was ultimately abolished. From February 1983 full power reverted to the Administrator-General, who had remained on as the South African State President’s represen- tative. Creation of the Multiparty Conference ‘government of national unity’ in June 1985 repre- sents another attempt to instal a pliant regime in Windhoek. Throughout this period, however, the underlying political economy and socio-~litical structures have changed comparatively little.

This paper focuses on the nature and impact of urban desegregation in Windhoek, the capital city, during the transition period. Attention is devoted to the pattern of intra-urban mobility, its racial and class implications, the perceptions and behaviour of key actors and groups, and the contradictions and limitations inherent in such reforms. While of undoubted interest in their own right, these measures have been given added importance by South Africa’s apparent use of Namibia as a social laboratory for testing the implications of changes to cornerstones of apartheid policy. More specifically, this study attempts to throw some light on the extent to which segregation in southern Africa is dependent on the web of apartheid legislation as opposed to other politico-economic and social determinants. The conventional wisdom among whites is that abolition of the laws in question would precipitate rapid integration, miscegenation and the loss of exclusive white domination and identity. Several reforms similar to those in Namibia have subsequently been introduced in South Africa itself, although the Group Areas Act still remains inviolate.

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Theoretical Background

It has been increasingly recognized that colonial cities constitute a distinctive, albeit heterogeneous, category not accounted for in conventional and simplistic dichotomies between pre-industrial and indust~al cities (e.g. SJOBERG, 1960, 1965; HORVATH, 1969; LARIMORE, 1969; RADFORD, 1979; O’CONNOR, 1983). Their distinctiveness derives from the cultural contact situations in which they occur where the societies concerned have differing levels of socio-economic, political and technical organization or development. Crucially, they are characterized by domination of the colonized people by the colonizers (KING, 1976,1984). Notwithstanding culture-specific varia- tions, the form of social stratification and spatial organization found within colonial cities is charac- teristic of neither pre-industrial nor industrial cities. It is thus evident that in seeking to explore the relationship between social process and spatial form, studies of colonial urban structure and colonial urban development need to be situated within a broader conception of colonial political economy and the dynamic processes of (under-) development. For just as the advent of late 19th century colonialism fundamentally transformed the spatial organ~ation and the social relations of production and reproduction in pre-capitalist societies, so arguably the era of 20th century decolonization is resulting in important structural, spatial and social changes within the fabric of society and urban form.

Chronologically one can distinguish several phases in the history of colonial experiences, although with possible overlap and differences in both absolute and relative duration of phases in each case. They are distinguished to highlight the dominant dynamic during each, and should not be interpreted as representing a linear or causal Rostovian-type progression.

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(iii)

The precolonial period. The early colonial phase, during which control is established and the necessary mechanisms and structures put in place. The mature colonial period, when domination is systematized and the subjugation of indigenous populations completed. This implies transformation of the pre-capitalist mode of production, with the dissolution or conserva- tion of its various facets according to their degree of utility to the new status quo.

GeoforumiVolume 17 Number 211986

(iv)

(v)

Assimilation of a segment of the population through intermarriage and/or acculturation may also occur. Late colonialism, characterized by a rise of nationalist opposition to colonial rule. A conceptually and frequently empirically distinct transition period leading up to independence. This transition phase, which forms the central focus here, is crucial to the process of decolonization. This latter may be defined as the period leading up to formal independence during which that independence is implicitly accepted by the major parties involved as the outcome of their bargaining (WASSERMAN, 1976). Such bargaining may not be entirely peaceful, the extent of violence depending on the repressiveness of the colonial regime and the degree of social polarization. Characteris- tically also, some colonial political, social and legislative constraints are relaxed during this phase as a gesture of goodwill to defuse tension and as a means of easing the transition and the fundamental changes which would otherwise occur with the formal granting of independence (SIMON, 1984a). It is the nature of some of these changes in the contemporary Namibian context that this paper now turns to examine.

The distinctive nature of South African urban form is well known. Segregation between white settlers, indigenous and mixed race groups, introduced by the British in the late 19th century, may be traced back through British colonialism for several hundred years (CHRISTOPHER, 1983). However, the systematization of what DAVIES (1981) has termed the ‘segregation city’ into the structurally simplified and more rigid ‘apartheid city’ after 1948 (see also WESTERN, 1981) is distinctive in the sense that it was brought about after the granting of independence to South Africa in the hands of the white minority regime (SIMON, 1984b).

The progressive implementation of this policy in Namibia, although excluding the Group Areas Act itself, meant that by the beginning of the transition period in 1977 Namibian urban form and structure were indistinguishable from those of South Africa (see below). With the final demolition of the Old Location in 1968, Windhoek had fulfilled the requirements of South Africa’s apartheid geography, becoming a city divided against itself with three physically distinct racial settlements separated by a statutory buffer strip (Figure 1). The central city

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and suburbs were reserved for whites, and the new peripheral townships of Khomasdal and Katutura for coloured and black people, respectively. This ‘apartheid city’ structure aimed to provide a broadly sectoral arrangement of racially homogeneous residential areas to avoid inter-racial contact, minimize the need for cross travel to or from work and enable future urban expansion of these discrete sectors in opposite directions (MUNICIPALITY OF WINDHOEK, 1952). By the end of the late colonial period in 1977, Windhoek was small even in terms of.colonial capital cities, with a population of under 100,000. Nevertheless it did display the typical colonial and especially apartheid spatial, structural and social features, perhaps most notably the rigid residential segregation and racial stratification just referred to.i Politics, education, residence, recreation, social status, economic opportunity, and even freedom of movement, were racially determined. Blacks were regarded as only temporary urban residents required to return to their respective bantustans when no longer economically active, although many people, including the Municipality, had in reality, already come to accept the perma- nence of at least a significant proportion of blacks in Katutura.

Reference must also be made to the literature on segregation in capitalist cities since, notwithstanding major differences in political economy, social process and spatial form, the European segments, at least, of colonial cities had capitalist land markets. Two distinct schools of thought have emerged in this literature: a ‘liberal’ strand concerned primarily with measurement and analysis of ethnic segregation (e.g. PEACH, 1975; PEACHetal., 1981; JACKSON and SMITH, 1981), and a ‘radical’ stream seeking to understand the process of class segregation (e.g. HARVEY, 1975; SCOTT, 1980; CANNADINE, 1982; HARRIS, 1984; MCCARTHY and SMIT, 1984). In view of the institutionalization of ethnic segregation under colonialism and especially apartheid, it is the latter stream which perhaps holds more relevance for the dynamics of class formation within the European urban segment. With legislative desegregation and decolonization, however, the ethnic dimension becomes potentially important as well, since race, class, and residential location are no longer mutually exclusive and simultaneously determined (see below).

In his recent review, HARRIS (1984, p. 26) notes that,

292 Geoforutiolume 17 Number 211986

4 N

KHOMASDAL

y

WINOHMK /

NORTH

WlNOtlOfK

OLD LOCAll& ,d

KLEIN WINOHOEK

Figure 1. Windhoek: the apartheid city of the 1960s. Wide buffer strips separated the new planned townships of Katunua (blacks) and Khomasdal (coloureds) from the rest of the urban area (whites). Single access roads further

facilitated control. Note the different densities: Katutura and Khomasdal held half the urban population by 1968.

As a spatial phenomenon, segregation has been widely noted but its significance remains poorly understood . . . its consequences for the development of social and political life within the city have been relatively neglected.

In the future, long run analysis of post-desegregation intra-urban residential mobility in Namibia (and hopefully South Africa as well) may illuminate important aspects of this relationship by virtue of the unique nature of apartheid segregation coupled with the existence of capitalist land markets in white, coloured, Asian and potentially also black ‘group areas’. Although the short time span covered by the data presented below precludes more than mention of the possibility at this stage, such a task could prove instrumental in integrating the First and

Third World literatures on the subject, which have developed in isolation from one another. It is time for social theoriests to appreciate that the Third World can provide valuable insights of general applicability rather than being merely some distant and esoteric academic sideline. Its social fabric is, after all, at least as complex as that of the First World. EVERS (1984) has argued cogently, for example, that access to the means of reproduction, especially home ownership, is probably a more crucial determinant of class relations in Asian cities than access to the means of production. This is because industrialization is generally not widespread, while industrial capital is owned largely by non-nationals and transnational corporations. If substantiated by further research, this contention


has important implications for refinement of contemporary Marxist analysis (see also COOPER, 1983, with respect to Africa). This paper is concerned with one aspect of enhancing social reproduction in Windhoek through access to adequate housing.

Legislative desegregation and intra-urban residential mobility in Windhoek

The process of desegregation and residential change during or immediately after decolonization has been little studied in detail. Apart from regional over- views of postcolonial urbanization in Africa which touch briefly on individual cities (e.g. ABU- LUGHOD, 1976; McNULTY, 1976; SOJA and WEAVER, 1976; O’CONNOR, 1983) more detailed contributions deal with Dar es Salaam (MASCARENHAS, 1967; VORLAUFER, 1970, 1973), Nairobi (TIWARI, 1972), Lagos (SADA, 1972) and Kigali (NWAFOR, 1981). Much work in this field during the 1960s and 1970s took the form of static factorial ecologies (e.g. ABU-LUGHOD, 1969, 1980; BERRY and REES, 1969; BRAND, 1972; GRADUS, 1976; WEINSTEIN and PILLAI, 1979). While such studies may not correspond entirely to known urban patterns (JOSHI, 1972), and certainly reveal nothing about underlying processes of change, their causes or consequences, they may still .provide useful indications of overall residential (ecological) structure at a given point in time in the absence of further information.’ Since the age of decolonization is now well-nigh past, Zimbabwe, Namibia and some of South Africa’s so- called ‘independent’ bantustans provide the last opportunities for detailed empirical study of intra- urban residential mobility and integration (HARVEY, 1979; SIMON, 1983b, 1985a; PARNELL, 1984).

(a) Desegregation: legislating for the ‘new dispensa- tion’. The primary legislation governing urban segregation in Namibia was the Natives (Urban Areas) Proclamation, No. 56 of 1951. Based on South Africa’s 1945 Natives (Urban Areas) Con- solidation Act, its wide-ranging provisions encompassed inter alia the establishment of locations, and compulsory segregation of blacks therein, curfews, 72-hour limit on stays in urban areas without a permit, registration of location dwellers, and ‘repatriation’ to the bantustans of people superfluous to the requirements of local capital and white households.

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South Africa’s notorious Group Areas Act was never implemented in Namibia, while the Windhoek Municipality’s attempts to reserve Windhoek and Khomasdal for exclusive white and coloured residence respectively in terms of the 1963 Municipal Ordinance were rejected, because of the territory’s political sensitivity in the international arena. Nevertheless, segregation has always been the norm, largely in consequence of other measures, most notably Proc. 56 of 1951, and restrictive clauses in title deeds of buildings and plots which precluded sale or transfer to and occupation by black, coloured or Asian people. Only bona fide live-in domestic servants could be exempted with municipal approval. As recently as 1974, the new Windhoek Town Planning Scheme specifically empowered the City Engineer to approve incorporation of racially restrictive clauses into title deeds in the older parts of the city, which predated such measures, so as to enhance segregation. By the mid- 1970s segregation was virtually complete, with each racial group in their allotted ghetto, apart from some non-autonomous households such as domestic servants and contract labourers on their employers’ premises, or nurses and secondary school pupils in hostels.

During his first three months in office, the Adminis- trator-General removed several major pillars of apartheid legislation as an attempt to demonstrate South Africa’s good faith to the UN:

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Proclamation AG4 of 1977 repealed the amended 1934 Immortality Proclamation and 1953 Mixed Marriages Ordinance, while Proc. AG8 of 1977 eased procedures for inter-racial marriages. The General Law Amendment Proc., AG5 of 1977, repealed much of the amended 1922 Native Administration Proc., the 1927 Prohibi- tion of Credit to Natives Proc., and many onerous sections of the 1951 Natives (Urban Areas) Proc. These included the burden of proof of exemption by blacks, the 72-hour, influx control and curfew measures. Certain local authority powers were also reduced. The Natives (Urban Areas) Amendment Proc., AG12 of 1977, enabled sale of township land and property to blacks, and the registration of their title deeds and mortgages. Since demolition of the Old Location only leasehold had been permitted. This change went con- siderably further than the 99-year leases permitted in South Africa (MABIN and

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PARNELL, 1983), although there has now been an official commitment to introduce freehold rights there too.

Some two years then elapsed before the newly constituted National Assembly proceded further along this path:

The Abolishment of Racial Discrimination (Urban Resdiential Areas and Public Ameni- ties) Act, No. 3 of 1979, removed all racial restrictions in residential areas and most public amenities. Previous measures had simply made the situation for each officially defined race group more uniform in their respective areas. From the perspective of intra-urban residential mobility this was therefore the single most crucial change. Right-wing white reaction, both inside and outside the National Assembly, was so vociferous that the Administrator-General deferred the clauses on public amenities and penalties for offenders for a year. The National Assembly itself subsequently felt obliged to amend the Act in 1980, downgrading the penalties from prison sentences to mere cancellation of business licences. The Abolition of Racial Discrimination (Urban Land and Public Amenities) Amendment Act, No. 21 of 1981, widened the Act’s scope to include all urban land and improved the procedures for tracing contraventions. The Natives (Urban Areas) Amendment Act, No. 12 of 1980, provided for the levying of rates on black freehold property in townships, while the Second Natives (Urban Areas) Amendment Proclamation of 1980, repealed restrictions on the purchase of township property by whites imposed in 1951.

Although symbohc on one level, these changes cannot be dismissed as purely cosmetic. Their nature and impact are examined below, primarily in terms of intra-urban residential mobility to parts of Windhoek formerly out of bounds. However, it is important to note that this process is affected by at least four ‘external’ factors. Firstly, a severe-and growing-housing shortage has long existed in most racial and class brackets in Windhoek but particularly in Khomasdal and Katutura because of restrictive state policy. Secondly, the legislation just cited removed restrictions on black rural-urban migration which, as elsewhere in colonial Africa, has risen dramatically in response to rural underdevelop-

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ment, un- or underemployment, the recent long drought, and the ongoing guerrilla war. This has increased pressure on the existing township housing stock still further and spawned the growth of illegal per&urban squatments (SIMON 1985b,). Thirdly, a significant proportion of the white minority, many of them South Africans on relatively short term state or private sector contract, have begun voting with their feet against the dismantling of apartheid and exclusive white rule. More high cost houses in former white suburbs have thus come on the market under ‘normal’ circumstances. Fourthly, a counter- flow of middle class South African coloureds has migrated into Namibia’s main centres since desegregation began, while a trickle of elite Namibian refugees has begun returning in anticipation of independence.

(b) Policing segregation in a context of change: municipal attitudes. Socio-pohtical change inevitably generates conservative opposition from within existing structures since it implies change to prevailing power relations. Vociferous opposition to the Namibian reforms from the bulk of white opinion was thus entirely predictable even though the thrust of change was aimed, as argued above, at maintaining the underlying political economy largely unchanged beneath the now necessary process of deracialization. Firstly, this marked the apparent derogation of the ideology of racial domination so long ingrained in the conservative small town white community. Secondly, and perhaps even more fundamentally, desegregation was perceived as a direct threat to the class interests of the predominantly Afrikaner white working class and petty bourgeoisie who maintained their position against coloured and black aspirations only by virtue of apartheid legislation and structures.

In this context it is instructive to examine the role and perceptions of the Windhoek Municipality as the local level champion of white interests and the authority charged with day to day administration of urban segregation. Before promulgation of the Abolishment of Racial Discrimination Act in mid- 1979, people seeking to live outside their allotted ‘group area’ required municipal permission in terms of the Town Planning Scheme, health regulations, title deed restrictions, and, in the case of blacks, the Natives (Urban Areas) Proclamation of 1951. The Muni~ipality’s Director of Non-white Affairs was empowered to make decisions on black domestic servants, but all other cases, including more than

GeoforumNolume 17 Number U1986

one servant per house, required consideration by the City Council.

Examination of these records provides an insight into contemporary attitudes and policy.3 The Municipality expressly sought to minimize racial mixing. Their primary criterion was thus how essential the applications were; secondly, what the likely impact would be (especially in terms of complaints from white neighbours); thirdly, the adequacy of accommodation; and fourthly, the availability of public transport in the area.4 From January 1976 to June 1979 inclusive, only 27 applications were made in respect of 62 persons. Twelve of these (44%) were ultimately granted, about half of the applications received in each year. In terms of this criterion, municipal policy appears to have been consistently applied; however the records reveal no clear distinction between certain applications which were approved and others which were not. By implication there was scope for significant subjectivity.

Most illuminating as to the Municipality’s attitude is interdepartmental correspondence on the subject of illegal black and coloured residence in white areas over this period. Frequent debates on methods of combating the phenomenon included possible use of municipal inspectors to issue summonses or report cases to the police, obtaining information from parking meter-readers, and conducting a systematic survey. Up to 25% of home owners in wealthier white suburbs were thought to be accommodating coloureds or Rehoboth ‘Basters” illegally, apart from extra-marital cohabitation. Overcrowded servants’ quarters, use of garages, shacks, building sites or supply depots, and even sharing of houses by white and coloured families were reported.

The ‘problem’ was far more widespread than generally believed, a fact municipal inspectors attributed to the lack of previous action. Resolute action was thus proposed, but uncertainty existed as to the most appropriate method. There were even some cases of coloureds living in central city flats, where no action could be taken. Residents complaining to the Municipality were to be asked to take up the matter with the police. There was frequent reference in the discussions to wider political developments: some city councillors felt the time inappropriate for action of this kind as it had a bearing on ‘race relations’, ,while others (especially National Party supporters) felt action to

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be the Municipality’s duty since it was responsible for introducing the restrictive title deed clauses in the first place; besides, the Tumhalle Constitutional Conference had expressed itself in favour of retain- ing ethnic residential segregation.6 Uncertainty was repeatedly expressed as to whether the Municipality was legally bound to take action on these transgress- ions. Together with the overall procrastination, this seemed to reflect a certain reluctance to act, much as they would instinctively have liked to.

By late 1977 the administrative problems, from the Municipality’s point of view, had increased: abolition of the Mixed Marriages and Immorality Proclamations meant that people of different races could now legally cohabit or marry-yet they couldn’t reside in the same suburb! At the same time a noticeable drift of coloured people into the white city had been detected, especially to flats and old plots in the central area without title restrictions. Angry whites were complaining, not only about specific instances of this trend but the potential threat this infiltration posed to properry values and hence their investments. Despite advice to report such as cases to the police, complainants were unwilling ‘to get involved’. Moreover, the Munici- pality did not want to take a course of action that would conflict with new policy then already being formulated by central government. Little further thus happened before promulgation of the Abolish- ment of Racial Discrimination Act, although an incomplete survey on 17th May 1979 suggested at least 33 plots to be occupied by ‘non-whites’ (SIMON, 1983b).

Notwithstanding the fact that many of the inspectors, officials and city councillors undoubtedly supported (and still support) the policy of residential segregation, whatever their class backgrounds, there was awareness of the changing political circumstances and a desire to avoid direct conflict with them. Some professional staff (e.g. planners, engineers) actually foresaw few problems with desegregation, possibly because, unlike their less skilled colleagues, it posed no substantial threat to their class interests. The position was complicated by conflicting legal provisions after the removal of discriminatory laws began in late 1977-something which has been a recurrent problem throughout the transition period. It provides strong evidence that a system of comprehensive restrictions and controls cannot be dismantled piecemeal. As discussed below, this is also being borne out in South Africa itself with the current reform programme.

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The concern with property values indicates, furthermore, that there is indeed a strong materialist dimension to apartheid ideology. Immigration of different ethnic groups, generally (and often incorrectly) perceived by whites to be of inferior class status, is seen as likely to depress the value of surrounding properties. Exchange values-in this case of housing-therefore form the basis of white political mobilization in defence of their material interests. A ~autiona~ note is, however, necessary. Since the white population is itself heterogeneous in class terms, the most vociferous reaction would be expected from those working class fractions feeling most directly threatened. In fact, though, a high proportion of the white working class occupies rented or employer-provided housing, while the opposition to desegregation encompassed all white classes, especially among Afrikaners and some German-speakers. Even if one could sustain an argument that land (property) has merely formed the focus of mobilisation in defence of wider interclass white interests, it would be important not to discount the major impact of racism and apartheid social conditioning. Increasing class differentiation within each racial and ethnic category in Nambia and South Africa is making it evident that in southern Africa, as elsewhere, race and class should be viewed as cross-cutting, rather than merely alternative, categories for reference group ascrip- tion and social analysis (see NORTON, 1984).

In public, however, the City Council adopted a negative and pessimistic attitude towards these reforms, reflecting the racial and political con- servatism of most councillors and officials (CITY OF WINDHOEK, 1978, p. 6, 1979, p. 4; WINDHOEK OBSERVER, 16 June 1979,22 March 1980, p. 6). Thus, in reviewing the previous year, the Mayor, Councillor S. G. Beukes, a member of the secret Afrikaner Broederbond (WILKINS and STRYDOM, 1979, p. A6), said:

The opening of residential areas to all races was certainly a step which served political purposes and which belongs in a country with a (racially) equally composed government. It is actually my considered opinion that its practical implications are so un- favourable that they have completeiy neutralized the political advantages. (CITY OF WINDHOEK, 1979 p. 4; author’s translation).

Citing the severe housing shortage, while many serviced plots remained unsold, he claimed (without reference to the economic conditions or wider political uncertainties inhibiting new home con-

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stru~tion) that most people were hesitant to invest in a mixed suburb, and concluded that

This step has already been to the detriment of local authorities, and wifl continue to be so for a Iong time. (CITY OF ~NDHOEK, 1979, p. 4; author’s translation) .

The South West African Municipal Association, an all-white body representing municipalities in the territory, convened a special congress behind closed doors in August 1979 to discuss the opening of residential areas. Most delegates, including Mayor Beukes of Windhoek, expressed themselves vehemently against desegregation, the more because they had not been adequately consulted and their representations had been ignored. Debate was very emotional, dealing with perceived threats of ‘lowered standards’ and hygiene, suburban ‘ove~pulation’, and discrimination against whites. The few delegates taking a more positive view were not well received. Such fears are typical of white colonial attitudes elsewhere, and reflect resolute adherence to out- moded ideologies of racial supremacy, which often suppress sectional class interests, in the face of the perceived threat posed by change. Discussion centred upon possible steps in this regard, and adoption of measures

to ensure that the least possible damage is done to urban areas as a result of integrated residential areas (WINDHOEK OBSERVER, 7 July 1979, 25 August 1979, p_ 14)

The thrust of this line was that by making ‘black and brown towns’ more attractive the number of people from them seeking to live in ‘white towns’ could be minimized.

(c) Blurring the edges of segregation: residential mobility. Intra-urban residential mobility was monitored from August 1979, when the Abolish- ment of Racial Discrimination Act came into force, until December 1981, by means of short questionn- aires completed by applicants for municipal water and electricity connections/disconnections7 These forms, administered in co-operation with the Municipality, included questions on ethnieity , family size, origin and destination of, and reason for, the move. In view of the very large number of forms, analysis was restricted to ‘integration cases’ of households moving into areas previously forbidden to them. 265 such ~nnections and 113 disconnections were recorded by the end of 1981, reflecting a remarkably steady rate of movement averaging 9

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households per month. Coverage was thus fairly comprehensive; a few black and coloured people did purchase property in white areas from 1978 onwards using surrogate nominees, but they generally took occupation only after August 1979. However, no method existed for monitoring mobility which did not require municipal water/electricity connections.8

In order to obtain deeper insights into the perceptions, attitudes and problems of the people involved, a structured interview survey of 45 households was undertaken from March to May 1981. This rep- resented a 25% sample of the roughly 180 connections by March 1981, stratified randomly by sub- area, race and date of move to ensure represen- tativeness. Replacements were used in cases of refusal, untraceability or recurring households, while at least two months were allowed for settling in before the interview. Outmigrants could not be interviewed since they no longer lived in Windhoek.

older parts of town, encompassing the least desirable former ‘white’ housing. However, there are also flats and hostels for civil servants adjoining the government centre on the eastern fringe of this zone. Windhoek West and Windhoek North are lower-middle to middle class areas with large concentrations of public sector housing, while the Southern Industrial Area now contains only vestigial housing in a situation of functional succession (Figure 3). Hochland Park is a new middle class area, currently being developed on the site of the Old Location. Pioniers Park, Academia and parts of Suiderhof grew as predominantly middle class suburbs during the 1970s. Luxury Hill, Klein Windhoek and parts of Eros form the established elite and upper middle class suburbs, with recent overspill into parts of Eros Park and Olympia (Figures 4 and 5). There is only insignificant housing in Windhoek South or the Northern Industrial Areas, but employees of Southern African Tran- sport Services do live in the ‘Railways’ zone.

(i) Spatial distribution. Table 1 shows the distribution of disconnections (origins) and connections (destinations) by area at the end of February and December 1981, respectively (see also Figure 2). Windhoek Central comprises the CBD and adjacent

It is immediately apparent that the distribution of moves is spatially uneven, with significant numbers going to only a handful of areas, namely Eros, Klein Windhoek, Windhoek Central, Windhoek West, Khomasdal and Katutura (Figure 6). Furthermore,

Table 1. ‘Integration’ moves involving water and electricity connections, August 197%December 1981.

Area

By February 1981 By December 1981 Origins Destinations Origins Destinations

No. % No. % No. % No. %

Extra-urban 34 20.0 0 0.0 43 16.2 00 Eros 3 1.8 12 7.0 4 1.5 1: 6’0 Eros Park 1.2 1 0.4 5 1:9 Klein Windhoek 68 29 10 9 Avis 0’0 1 0:4 Luxury Hill 1:9 Windhoek Central 19.2 8; 3:‘: Railways 0 0.0 2 1.2 0 0.0 4 1:s Windhoek North 1.2 0 0.0 3 1.1 Windhoek West Suiderhof Olympia Pioniers Park Academia Khomasdal Katutura 15 5.6 14 5.3 Windhoek South Hochland Park Southern Ind. Area Unknown

Total 170 100.0 170 100.0 265 100.0 265 100.0

298 GeoforumNolume 17 Number 2/1986

Figure 2. Suburbs or major areas of Windhoek for which data are reported (see text for description of their status and character). Eros Park, Academia, Pioniers Park and Hochland Park were laid out after 1968, while Katutura and

Khomasdal expanded northwards and westwards.

while most areas showed small or no net gains (i.e. connections less disconnections) only Klein Wind- hoek, Windhoek Central, Windhoek West and Suiderhof made any significant gains, and Khomasdal and ‘Outside’ has large net losses. Khomasdal’s net loss would been far greater had not a large new maisonette scheme been completed in August/September 1980, drawing back a significant number of petty bourgeois coloured people on the housing waiting list who had been living temporarily elsewhere in Windhoek (Figure 7).

The observed mobility patterns can largely be explained in terms of the physical, social and economic characteristics of the various suburbs on the one hand (e.g. MUNICIPALITY OF

WINDHOEK, 1978; DE KOCK, 1979), and the demographic and socio-economic or class characteristics of the people involved, on the other. Broadly similar patterns are emerging in Zimbabwe, with Harare’s less salubrious southwestern suburbs closes to the black townships experienceing the heaviest influx, while the new elite scattered in the affluent northern suburbs (DAVIES, 1979; HARVEY, 1979; SIMON, 1985a). One important factor governing the observed mobility pattern in Windhoek is the spatial distribution of public sector housing, which accounts for roughly 38% of all housing in former white areas. Many parastatals and state organs reserve their houses for whites, but in any case the racial class structure of employment ensures that virtually no members of other races

GeoforumNolume 17 Number 2/1986 299

Figuie 3. The takeover of older houses on the fringes of the Southern Industrial Area by commerce and industry is reducing the scope for intra-urban migration by lower middle class people from the townships.

Figure 4. The green, low density suburb of Klein Windhoek nestles between hill which separate it from the crowded townships, commercial and industrial zones.

gain access to them. These houses are most heavily concentrated in Academia, Pioniers Park, the Railways Area, Windhoek North, parts of Windhoek West and City West.

Another important factor influencing the rate and spatial distribution of ‘integration’ moves is the availability of loan capital for home purchase or construction during the severe recession.’ Notwith- standing the high proportion of houses owned by

the state sector, the former white areas are largely organized through a capitalist land market. Indeed, it will be argued below that one of the primary objectives of the post-1977 reforms has been to extend this market to Khomasdal and Katutura. Under the prevailing political economy, the mere operation of a capitalist land market has two indirect racial effects which serve to inhibit desegregation:

(1) The income criteria for appraising applicants

GeoforumNolume 17 Numbe :r 21 ‘1986

Figure 5. Large, spacious homes and gardens in Klein Windhoek are unattainable for most township dwellerr official desegregation.

; de spite

Figure 6. New houses under construction in Katutura. Some Khomasdal residents have purchased such units the overcrowding is less severe and the waiting list shorter.

(2)

mean that many black and coloured people have difficulty raising building society or bank loans, and are thus forced to rely on the local authority systems, which are available only for low income housing in the townships. Different suburbs, by virtue of their respective character, status, housing standard, etc., experience different market conditions. High quality houses are usually easiest to sell in upper and middle class areas. Mortgages are thus easier to obtain there than elsewhere, because of the reduced risk to the lending institution in case of default. Conversely, the effective demand for a luxury house in Katu- tura, for example, is small, so that morgages are rarely granted there. Potential applicants for

(ii) migrants’ social characteristics reveals clearly that they were almost invariably lower-middle or middle class. Most were coloured or Rehoboth ‘Baster’, under 45 years of age and living in nuclear families of up to five members. lo Accommodation after the move was superior to that beforehand: 53% of respondents had moved into detached, usually single storey, houses and a further 29% into flats. The proportion of owner-occupiers more than doubled to 38%, while the category embracing long-term guests, boarders and lodgers fell by

bet :ause

such houses in Katutura are almost certain to be black and they may find it easier to move elsewhere.

Social characteristics of migrants. Analysis of

Geoforuflolume 17 Number 211986

Figure 7. An attempt to ease the accommodation shortage in Khomasdal: higher quality, mass-built houses, disparagingly dubbed ‘birds’ nests’ by residents on account of their smallness. Some Khomasdal emigrants have returned to such

homes.

five-sixths to only 4%. This provides evidence of the housing shortage and overcrowding in Khomasdal and Katutura. Qualified professionals formed the single largest occupation category (33%)) followed by 31% in semi- and unskilled non-manual employment. The qualified technical/skilled, and semi- and unskilled manual, categories were also significant. The profile of second breadwinners, where present, was comparable (SIMON, 1983b).

Although the black middle class is very small, the number of people moving out of Katutura was lower than anticipated, and most blacks in the sample were politically active exiles returning to Namibia or local businessmen. This trend was due in part to suspicion or mistrust of whites, and the fact that some wealthier Katutura residents had opted, instead, to build their own homes in Katu- tura; but primarily due to widespread reluctance to give up houses presently occupied as they hoped to acquire them at very low cost.” There is also the factor of political pride: some blacks feel it injudi- cious to move under present circumstances, prefer- ring to maintain group solidarity. After independence, migration from Katutura will probably accelerate; indeed, several residents are known to own houses in other suburbs already. Even if most blacks have no such status-related desires, and a future SWAP0 government were to argue against it on socialist grounds, the demonstration effect is certain to attract many members of the emerging indigenous elite, as has been the case elsewhere (MASCARENHAS, 1967; TIWARI, 1972; VOR- LAUFER, 1973; ABU-LUGHOD, 1976; SOJA and WEAVER, 1976; FINDLAY et al., 1984).

From the foregoing sections it is evident that, more precisely than simply inhibiting racial desegregation, operation of the capitalist land market has generally ensured maintenance of the class characteristics of the respective former white suburbs. If initial trends persist, racial segregation will therefore gradually be superseded by citywide cluss segregation, particularly if bourgeois and elite migration out of Katutura and Khomasdal after independence accelerates sufficiently to dilute the class heterogeneity of those townships.

(iii) Migrants’ perceptions, attitudes and problems. As I have argued elsewhere, the recent paradigm shift to political economy perspectives by geog- raphers and other social scientists has (in the present context) resulted primarily in macro-scale analyses of the origins, structural features and persistence of colonialism, neocolonialism and underdevelopment (SIMON, 1984a). Micro-scale studies of individuals and their interactions have often not rested easily within this mode of analysis, which is centrally concerned with class alignments and conflict, such classes being defined in terms of their position and role in the relations of production.12 Conversely, micro-scale studies in the non-Marxist social anthropological and sociological tradition have long been criticized for failing to situate their subjects adequately within the wider political economy. In seeking to move beyond such dichotomous polarities towards an integration of scales we turn now from the structural and proces- sual determinants and class characteristics of our subjects, to a consideration of individual migrants’ world views: their reasons for moving, perceptions, attitudes and problems consequent upon moving.i3

302

Our 45 respondents gave a total of 67 reasons for moving to their current homes, an average of 1.5 each. By far the largest categories were ‘moving to larger premises’ (24%), ‘moving or transfer to Windhoek’ (17%), ‘closer to work’ (12%) and miscellaneous-such as changed marital status (9%). Only 15% of responses related explicitly to socio-political change, e.g. returning from exile, leaving South Africa in order to marry across the colour line, better educational or employment opportunities in Namibia for South African coloureds, or official harassment of South African coloureds in Khomasdal. Nevertheless a fair prop- oprtion of the moves/transfers came about as a result of desegregation and the hope of impen~ng independence, while the moves to larger or better accommodation reflect the chronic housing shortage in Khomasdal and Katutura, and the fact that desegregation has allowed at least some people to find vacant accommodation elsewhere. These housing shortages themselves have direct politico- economic origins since restrictive provision for the indigenous population has been a consistent policy inst~ment of colonial urban planning, never more rigidly applied than in the apartheid city (SIMON, 1983b).

Many respondents stressed the chronic housing shortage in ~ornasd~ as a major factor behind their moves, adding that they had no particular desire ‘to live among the whites’. Their names were frequently still on the waiting list for municipal housing in Khomasdal, and they planned to return there should any become available. Such sentiments were usually, but not always, expressed by lower- middle class people, and those native to Windhoek or Namibia. A number of respondents saw no reason to live in poorer quality houses in Katutura or Khomasdal simply for ‘solidarity’ when better ones were available elsewhere; besides, living elsewhere would be in vogue after independence. However, conveniently situated accommodation (especially in flats) was obtainable in central Windhoek for monthly rentals of RX)--95 (in 1981,l Rand equalled approximately f0.65), which they could well afford, particularly as the move generally generated a saving on commuting and other travel costs. A small but significant number of coloureds have also recently moved to Katutura where the housing shortage was then not as critical, and some of the better new houses there were obtainable for rent or, occasionally, purchase.

Perhaps the most unexpected phenomenon revealed by this study is the large number of

Geoforum/Volume 17 Number 2/1986

formally educated and qualified cofoureds coming to Namibia from South Africa to take advantage of higher salaries, better work, social and educational opportunities in the territory since the abolition of statutory racial discrimination. In the sample there were 10 such household units and three racially mixed couples from the Cape Town area who had come to marry. Eleven of these 13 households lived in former white areas, and expressed no desire to live in Khomasdal, ~though some (mainly single women) had lodged there initially on arrival in Windhoek. A separate study of Khomasdal suggests that a total of 470 such household units (18% of Khomasdal’s population) lived in Khomadal alone (MUNICIPAL~ OF WINDHOEK, 1981, p. 12).

Coloured migration is not new, but was previously restricted mainly to semi-skilled artisans and Iabourers from the North Western Cape working in the ~onst~ction industry. As an influx control measure, South African coloureds require perma- nent residence permits in order to work, but this is seen as discriminatory, causing much resentment because no other group any longer faces such restrictions. Although aimed essentially at unskilled migrants, many people of all classes refuse to apply for permits because of the discrimination and alleged political manipulation by the coloured second tier authority. Despite the clampdown, jobs are easily obtained even without permits because of the skilled labour shortage.

While virtually all respondents said that their reasons for moving had been fulfilIed, 82% felt happy in their new neighbourhoods, and only 2% admitted to being unhappy. Eighty-two percent said they planned to remain in their present homes for the near future, 16% envisaged moving elsewhere in Windhoek, and only 2% anticipated return to their original suburb. These last were not the same 2% who felt unhappy. An attempt was then made to measure respondents’ assimilation in their new area, as this seems intuitively to be related to their happiness and future plans as just outlined. Three indicators were used.

Interaction with neighbours. Forty percent of respondents were on visiting terms with at least some neighbours, a further 45% only passed the time of day when they met outside, while 15% claimed no such interaction at all.

Friends in ~e~g~~o~rhoo~. Forty-six percent of respondents had made no friends, as distinct from acquaintances, in the vicinity of their new homes;


25% made one or two, while 16% claimed to have made nine or more.

Social circle. Sixty-two percent said that their social circles were essentially the same as before they moved, but 36% had experienced significant changes in theirs.

The level of interaction thus varied widely. Those with most neighbourhood contact tended to be those in the Windhoek Central flats and Katutura, and were also generally happy there. Interaction with neighbours and happiness in Khomasdal’s maisonette scheme were lower than anticipated. Virtually all the respondents there complained about the smallness and shoddy finish of the units and the consequent lack of privacy. The vast majority of house occupants in Windhoek’s former white suburbs were happy in those neighbourhoods, although most had no friends in the immediate vicinity and did not visit their neighbours, speaking only occasionally or never, and sometimes not even knowing their names. This is a common middle class behaviour pattern, irrespective of race, facilitated by high car-ownership levels: 78% of respondents had one or more cars in the family. Predictably, those families without cars were concentrated in the central city flats.

A small but significant proportion of the respondents did, however, have bad experiences for race- related reasons, and these do seem to have been spatially concentrated in a few areas. It was predictable that such incidents would occur primarily in the central city,14 and also in predominantly Afrikaans lower-middle to middle class areas such as Suiderhof, Pioniers Park, Academia and Windhoek West. This was to some extent true, except that respondents in Windhoek West, which is adjacent to Khomasdal and has one of the highest concentrations of coloured and black residents, reported no hostility at all. The three respondents in Academia and Pioniers Park also felt happy there, having not experienced any problems, although assaults by whites on members of other races in Pioniers Park were reported occasionally in the press. It is difficult to ascertain whether the small number of racial ‘integration’ moves into these suburbs is the result of any objective criteria such as mortgage availability and house size/type or more subjective attitudes such as reputed racist hostility. Conversely, some incidents did occur in Klein Windhoek, a high income suburb with many English-, Afrikaans- and German-speaking whites.

303

In most cases these incidents occurred in the period immediately after residential desegregation or when respondents first moved into their present abodes, and then declined or ceased with time. Where adults only were involved, problems in the blocks of flats, where interaction was of necessity greater, were generally restricted to swearing and abuse. One or two cases of deliberate and explicit harassment were reported. In the suburbs, disapproval generally took the form of strange looks or pointed ignoring of the people concerned. A couple of respondents had experienced problems in negotia- ting leases of flats or rooms once the landlord discovered they were not white.

The presence of children, by virtue of their greater interaction, spontaneity and play in the neighbourhood, frequently brought prejudices and antagon- isms into the open. The worst cases were experienced in Suiderhof by one present and one former resident household. Both couples’ children had been repeatedly sworn at, called ‘kaffirs’ and the like, subjected to harassment on their bicycles, and even stoned on occasion by their Afrikaans neighbours’ children. Despite the one respondent’s attempts to avoid trouble, his children eventually retaliated, and the parents became involved. This had been going on for over two months at the time, but the respondent was determined to remain there, having taken a morgage on the house, and said the neighbours would simply have to adapt:

We don’t want intimate relations-just common decency and ‘dagse’ (saying hello)-it doesn’t cost anything!

Their German-speaking neighbours on the other side were, by contrast, friendly, and they distanced themselves from such behaviour.

As a group, racially mixed couples with one white spouse undoubtedly had the worst experiences, becoming a focus of resentment by those opposing socio-political changes, since they epitomized what such people reject. Windhoek Magistrate’s Court records show an average of one mixed marriage per month between their legalization in 1977 and late 1981. Cohabitation was also common. With the exception of two returned exiles who had married foreign white women while abroad, all mixed marriages in the sample originating in Namibia and South Africa were of white men and coloured or ‘Baster’ (and very occasionally black) women. This is consistent with the generally intermediate social and economic status of coloureds. The first local

304

marriage between a black man and a white woman occurred only in October 1981 (WINDHOZX OBSERVER, 17 October 1981).

The white partners were sometimes reviled for ‘betraying their volk’ or ‘fostering racial assimilation’, while the other partners were regarded as sluts if female, and upstarts if male. Assaults on, and harassment of, racially mixed couples were common in public places for the first year or two after the abolition of the Immorality and Mixed Marriages Proclamations but declined somewhat thereafter. l5 Several of the mixed couples in the sample had been harassed on several occasions, and it was again worst for their children, who would frequently be taunted and molested at school. Some partners also experienced initial resentment from their respective spouses’ families, but were generally accepted once they determined to marry. One such couple had to move no fewer than seven times in two years because of racial discrimination. The husband was an employee of the South African Railways, which, at the time, adhered rigidly to apartheid policy and thus refused him Railways housing. l6 After much difficulty he was eventually allocated a house on a temporary basis.

Apart from this, however, all couples were accepted by their employers and class peer workmates without discrimination, as their private lives were seen as of no direct relevance. Although they generally did not find it easy to make new friends, they were fully accepted by existing friends. Mixed couples lived mainly in former white suburbs, but those in Khomasdal seemed well accepted. By late 1981 only one such couple was living in Katutura. The white wife was fully accepted, although somewhat of a curiosity.

Conclusions

Statutory residential desegregation in Namibia evolved in response to socio-political pressure, despite consistent opposition by most elected white representatives and their followers at both local and national levels. This opposition, while strong among working class factions mobilizing in defence of their apparently threatened interests, in fact embraced all classes and suggests that overt racism was a very real factor. The degree of segregation had been extremely high as a result of legislative control, but over the first 2.5 years since its abolition, a small but steady process of in-migration to former white areas


occurred. The distribution of these blacks and coloureds reflected particular ecological features of the city; e.g. the distribution of flats and public sector housing, perceived social attitudes in particular suburbs, and class status of migrants. Despite their different housing profiles and status characteristics, Windhoek Central, Windhoek West and Klein Windhoek were the main recipient areas. Nevertheless, significant return migration of coloured people to Khomasdal has occurred for reasons not attributable to problems experienced in the old white areas. Coloureds comprised the vast majority of ‘integration’ migrants, and while some blacks have moved, the only whites recorded as living in Khomasdal and Katutura were a few partners in mixed marriages. Notwithstanding some serious problems experienced by respondents, particularly in parts of the central city and Suiderhof, they generally appear to have encountered little lasting hostility or resistance. None of the calamities predicted by racial bigots occurred.

One fundamental conclusion is that, positive as the survey responses on the whole were, the legislative changes have benefited only a small, incipient middle class and elite minority to date.i’ This trend has been recorded in other Third World cities after independence and the dangers of simply replacing racially exclusive spatial organization with its class equivalent emphasized (MASCARENHAS, 1967; ABU-LUGHOD, 1975, 1976; SOJA and WEAVER, 1976; FINDLAY et al., 1984). While a significant proportion of the ‘integration’ cases in Windhoek are not members of the political or professional elite, and many are new immigrants from South Africa, their socio-economic status is above average for their respective communities, and is generally compatible with the class characteristics of their new neighbourhoods. It may be possible in the future to test the applicability of racial ‘tipping point’ theories developed in the USA (SCHELLING, 1969; SCHNARE, 1976; WOODS, 1980), but there is an important difference here in that the white population is certain to decline after independence, thus making more high quality housing available to the indigenous population (and inevitably the international diplomatic corps) for very different reasons. Thus far the number of ‘integration’ migrants is too small to have a significant impact on the general character of any suburb. It is too early to say how far this process of change will go, and although whites are ultimately likely to become minorities in many areas, the evidence to date refutes white fears (both in Namibia and South

GeoforumNolume 17 Number 2/1986 305

Africa) that desegregation would undermine their politico-economic dominance, cultural identity or real estate exchange values. Inequality is far more fundamentally structured and maintained. Within a capitalist housing market racial residential mixing alone therefore holds no prospect of reducing class segregation and thereby promoting socio-spatial transformation. Unless steps are taken to lessen the differences in density, income, housing quality and public services between former white areas, Katutura and Khomasdal, the existing tensions and conflicts will persist, if not worsen. Ultimately such action is only likely to occur as part of a fundamental political strategy to achieve socialist transformation by providing mass access to the bases of production and social reproduction (SIMON, 1985b; GREEN, 1981). At least until after independence, however, no significant change on this score is likely.

Furthermore, the Windhoek experience provides clear evidence that similar piecemeal reforms, such as abolition of the Immorality and Mixed Marriages Acts, now being introduced in South Africa, in themselves offer little prospect of fundamental change in the foreseeable future. Nor, with the current societal polarization, would repeal of the Group Areas Act lead to intra-urban residential mobility and interracial or interclass fraternization on anything like the scale of population removals perpetrated and ahentation engendered in terms of the Act. At one level this might provide some comfort--even justification-to Pretoria’s rulers in legitimizing the new ideology to their reactionary and apprehensive constituency. At a more fundamental level, though, the evidence highlights the futility of isolated and superficial reforms in seeking to forestall spiralling racial conflict by class co-operation. Furthermore, their limited positive effects are being undermined by the simultaneous introduction of structures proven in Namibia to be retrogressive and largely unworkable. Most important among these are the duplicative, costly and corruption- prone ethnically based second and third tier government system, education and health services (SIMON, 1983a, 198%). Equivalent entities are now appearing in South Africa in the shape of ‘own affairs’ portfolios under the tricameral parliamentary system, regional services councils and black ‘town’ councils. Amid the current crisis in South Africa, the lessons from Namibia appear not to have been adequately learnt.

Acknowledgements-Paul Wellings and two anonymous referees commented helpfully on an earlier version of this paper, while Liz Giggal drew Figure 1.

Notes

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

The Northern Industrial Areas, originally an overspill zone, have had all disturbance-causing and most new industry located there since the 1960s. While the Old Location had been close to the Southern Industrial Area, workers must now cross the city from Katutura and Khomasdal. This element, then, does not fit the ideal-type ‘apartheid city’ model, because white- owned capital could not be relocated by fiat like black and coloured labour. This is true especially where the state is an important locational decision-maker which limits the free operation of a capitalist land market (as in South Africa and Namibia), because of differences from what would be expected in terms of conventional ring and sector models of urban structure (e.g. GRADUS, 1976; HART, 1978; DE KOCK, 1979). No equivalent records pertaining to coloured or white applications were obtained. While a fair number of coloured people were certainly living in both Katutura and white areas, no whites are known to have lived in Katutura or Khomasdal. Public transport in Windhoek comprises an inadequate municipal bus service for blacks between Katutura and major employment nodes, and a privately run equivalent from Khomasdal. Taxis are segregated. A mixed race ethnic group officially defined as a sub- group of ‘coloured’. The group was originally based in South Africa’s Cape Province but it migrated to Namibia in the 1860s. Held from 1975-1977, this conference brought together conservative ethnic leaders in South Africa’s first attempt to instal a pliant neocolonial regime. There were about 3000 connections and 2000 disconnections by December 1980. Three such categories can be distinguished:

(i) tenants or subtenants having their meters read by landlords rather than the Municipality;

(ii) long term guests and hostel residents without individual meters;

(iii) squatters, caravan dwellers, etc. Each of these is potentially significant in certain areas of the city. There are three chief sources: the South West Africa Building Society, commercial banks, and the second and third tier state authorities. Almost 70% of respondents were married. Household size was commonly greater than nuclear family size, particularly in the case of single people, since accommodation was shared with relatives, friends or subtenants. The average ratio of nuclear family size to household size was 0.8O:l. The origin of this hope is an apparently undocumented promise made by the Municipality at the time of the Old Location’s closure that occupants would be given their houses after a certain period of rent payment. The Municipality frequently denied the truth of this, but public affirmations by prominent black politicians and the introduction by the Central Government of such a scheme for ownership in 1981/2 raise some doubts (SIMON, 1983b,). It is clearly inadequate to characterize all human behaviour as fundamentally economically motivated

306

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

and class-based, dismissing alternative bases as false consciousness. Nor is it accurate or constructive, as adherents of the now largely superseded dependency paradigm were wont, to deny the possibility and value of progressive action at local level. There are also some problems in applying conventional Marxist terms unmodified to Third World situations. For a similar argument in the low income housing context, see NIENTIED and VAN DER LINDEN (1985). Where, in addition to higher interaction levels in blocks of flats, many groups of non-residents gather to drink or find entertainment. Following the recent abolition of this legislation in South Africa itself, similar incidents have been reported in the press (See, WINDHOEK OBSERVER, 18 August 1979, p. 9; 8 September 1979, p. 6; 12 April 1980, p. 21; 30 August 1980; 2 May 1981). Despite political developments, all South African Transport Services’ (as the South African Railways and Harbours had been redesignated) facilities and activities in Namibia were still owned and operated directly from South Africa in accordance with South African legislation until May 1985. They have not significantly improved access to the means of reproduction for the impoverished majority (c$ EVERS, 1984), although freehold ownership in the townships may prove significant in the long run (SIMON, forthcoming).

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Desegregation in Namibia: the demise of urban apartheid?

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