Government policy towards informal settlements in South
Africa reflects a tension between two approaches: recognizing the legitimacy of
informal settlements and aggressively removing these so-called “slums”. Drawing
on nationally representative household survey data and interviews with 25
individuals relocated from an informal settlement to a “transit camp”, this
paper argues that more detailed attention should be paid to the changing
connection between housing, household formation and work. Whereas cities in the
apartheid era were marked by relatively stable industrial labour and racially
segregated family housing, today the location and nature of informal dwellings
are consistent with two important trends: demographic shifts, including towards
smaller more numerous households, and employment shifts, including a move from
permanent to casual and from formal to informal work. This study is therefore
able to substantiate in more detail a longstanding insistence by informal
settlement residents that they live where they do for reasons vital to their
everyday survival. The paper also highlights the limitations of relocations not
only to urban peripheries but also to other parts of cities, and it
underscoresthe importance of upgrading informal settlements through in situ development.
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