How Urban Design Keeps South Africa Segregated

Decades have passed since Apartheid came to an end, but South Africa remains divided. One reason is the legacy of its urban planning, which forced many Black South Africans to the periphery of cities.

00:00 South Africa’s unequal society
01:53 Apartheid’s origins as an economic model
03:20 The racist design of South African settlements
04:27 The legacy of South African spatial planning
06:58 The ANC’s attempts to tackle racist design
10:23 The ANC, corruption and state capture

--------

Bloomberg Originals offers bold takes for curious minds on today’s biggest topics. Hosted by experts covering stories you haven’t seen and viewpoints you haven’t heard, you’ll discover cinematic, data-led shows that investigate the intersection of business and culture. Exploring every angle of climate change, technology, finance, sports and beyond, Bloomberg Originals is business as you’ve never seen it.

Subscribe for business news, but not as you've known it: exclusive interviews, fascinating profiles, data-driven analysis, and the latest in tech innovation from around the world.

Visit our partner channel Bloomberg Quicktake for global news and insight in an instant.

[Re_RAM]

So why has govt failed to change apartheid spatial planning in 30 years?

[Geometric-Rate]

Stop blindly voting ANC. Others parties need a chance

[Gustav_Smit]

Guess who's going to vote ANC in upcoming election: poor people living in townships

[UnCoolDad]

ANC have been in power since 1994. Seems nothing has changed. The one thing that is the same is who to blame.

[zat]

that country is just sitting on a time bomb

[kdawggg]

This is a class issue at this point, there are more rich black people in South Africa than almost anywhere else in the world, the rest is just the failure of government to secure borders and aid the development of the poorest South African citizens.

[vteck]

They've had 30 years to fix this. When do we stop blaming things on the past and realize they do this to themselves

[maleselamolepo]

The current government still hasn’t helped SA get forward, so the issue also lies there! 👎

[ЦзинКэ-ых]

But a situation like that isn't SA's-specific. It's very common in South America, where there were no apartheid regimes.

[lungelomntungwa]

30 years in power and this is what ANC has to show? I’m glad the people have given them less then 50 %. 30 years we are still talking Apartheid? Argh man

[blaqued]

It's not just the government that's a problem. As a black person myself I've noticed a few problems with black South Africans;
1 They don't care about building environments that are conducive to growth for the next generation.
2 They stick to their tribal beliefs, meaning they believe in different things and I've never heard of a successful country with fractured beliefs.
3. They care more about being respected than doing what is right.
4. They give terrible service to each other within their businesses.
I could keep going, but these points are enough.

[EskeAndersen]

If you think the cause of South Africa's problems is "Apartheid spatial planning", you're so horribly naive that it makes me want to weep for humankind.

[vitornuevo]

This is no longer about race but social level (money) rich versus poor, all developing countries have the same problem at different levels, I know a lot of rich black people Living very well in South Africa.

[annakat]

Segregation is important and should be standard across the world where blacks and whites live.

[Onelove-Oneheart-hc]

Mandela like MLK had dreams, not plans

[fluidee]

As a black south african, I'd like to point out that, Just under 5% of the population lives in informal settlements, with the majority of them leaving formal structure homes, motivated by the belief that this will expedite their access to government housing subsidies.

The video exaggerates inequality by highlighting and contrasting the most extreme examples, thereby reinforcing a misleading narrative of white monopoly control.

You are dividing us and fueling hate and resentment.

[peterlouw]

Blame the ANC for not formalising informal settlements, they could have done so much to address this.

[cguyglu]

Who is the young dude who escaped poverty? He is extremely well spoken

[thandisilec]

What you failed to mention is that a lot of these informal settlements(slums) have immigrants from rest of continent building them and living there. Majority isn’t SAn citizens so it’s foreign ppl not eligible for housing adding to urban squalor. Townships is where you find majority Black SAns which are still rough hoods but you can see improvements and development there

[Tembo_Leonardo]

I'm Zambian but the level of inequality in South Africa is infuriating