Inhabiting the Ruins of the City of Tshwane
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17159/1727-3781/2024/v27i0a16945Keywords:
Schubart Park, spatial justice, ruination, inhabitance, City of Tshwane, Justice FronemanAbstract
In the inner city of Tshwane stand the skeletons of four high-rise buildings – the remains of Schubart Park. While there are no more people inside the ruins of these buildings, they contain the stories of the relations between a city and its inhabitants. In 2012 Justice Froneman wrote the judgment that ordered that the inhabitants of Schubart Park should be reinstated in their former homes, after they were evicted by the City of Tshwane in 2011. More than ten years after his judgment, there is (again) a plan to move the former residents back. From a spatial justice perspective and through Ann Stoler's work on ruination, Chris Butler's call for inhabiting the ruins and Ivan Vladislavić's short story We Came to the Monument, I reflect on how court judgments stand between the possible and the impossible. I call for a re-imagination of the ways in which the municipality can relate to the inhabitants of the City and argue that Justice Froneman enables this re-imagination through his judgment in Schubart Park.
Downloads
Metrics
References
Bibliography
Literature
Butler C "Inhabiting the Ruins of Neoliberalism: Space, Catastrophe and Utopia" 2019 Law & Crit 225-242
City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality Report of the Special Mayoral Committee 06/2023 (14 June 2023) (on file with the author)
Du Toit J "Utopia on Trial Again: Perceived Resident Quality at Schubart Park in South Africa" 2009 Journal of Architectural and Planning Research 159-175
Kinin A "Film and Spatial Critique in the Work of Patrick Keiller" 2009 Intermédialités 105-125
Lefebvre H The Production of Space (Blackwell Oxford 1991)
Lefebvre H Writings on Cities (Kofman E and Lebas E transl) (Blackwell Oxford 1996)
Mahope R "'Once-grand' Schubart Park Faces Restoration after Many Years" Pretoria Record (13 June 2013) 2
Mukherjee P "Ivan Vladislavić: Traversing the Uneven City" 2012 Journal of Postcolonial Writing 472-484
Runciman C Mobilisation and Insurgent Citizenship of the Anti-Privatisation Forum, South Africa: An Ethnographic Study (PhD-thesis University of Glasgow 2012)
Schutte CD Social Interaction and Place Perspective Experienced by Residents of Schubart Park, a High-Rise Complex in Pretoria. Report S105 (Human Science Research Council Pretoria 1984)
Soja EW Seeking Spatial Justice (University of Minneapolis Press Minneapolis 2010)
Stoler A (ed) Imperial Debris: On Ruin and Ruination (Duke University Press Durham 2013)
Van Marle K and De Villiers I "Law and Resistance in the City of Pretoria: Space, History and the Everyday" 2013 AFLJ 129-145
Venter Z "Schubart Park Residents Moved to Parkview Will Stay, Says Judge" Pretoria News (16 February 2021) 3
Vladislavić I Flashback Hotel: Early Stories (Umuzi Cape Town 2010)
Vladislavić I Missing Persons: Stories (David Philip Cape Town 1989)
Case law
Fose v Minister of Safety and Security 1997 3 SA 786 (CC)
Occupiers of Saratoga Avenue v City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality (CCT 12/12) [2012] ZACC 9 (24 May 2012)
Pheko v Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality 2012 2 SA 598 (CC)
Port Elizabeth Municipality v Various Occupiers 2005 1 SA 217 (CC)
Rikhotso v Northcliff Ceramics (Pty) Ltd 1997 1 SA 526 (WLD)
Schubart Park Residents Association v City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality 2013 1 BCLR 68 (CC)
Tswelopele Non-Profit Organisation v City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality 2007 6 SA 511 (SCA)
Legislation
Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996
Disaster Management Act 57 of 2002
National Building Regulations and Building Standards Act 103 of 1977
Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act 19 of 1998
Government publications
GN R2378 in GG 12780 of 12 October 1990
Internet sources
Anonymous 2017 Schubert Park Residents to March to Tshwane Municipality https://www.polity.org.za/article/schubert-park-residents-to-march-to-tshwane-municipality-2017-03-14 accessed 10 August 2023
Berlinton T 2023 City of Tshwane Unlocking Development through Strategic Property Releases https://www.tshwane.gov.za/?p=58739 accessed 10 August 2023
Housing Company Tshwane 2020 Housing Company Tshwane https://www.govpage.co.za/housing-company-tshwane-hct-vacancies/housing-company-tshwane accessed 10 August 2023
Tshabalala N 2020 Former Schubart Park Residents are not Happy at the New Building! https://www.r2k.org.za/2020/04/16/former-schubart-park-residents-are-not-happy-at-the-new-building/ accessed 10 August 2023
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Isolde de Villiers
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
.png){kind=spacer}