Challenges of Urbanisation: Problems of Migration, Poverty and Crime in Post-Apartheid Cities of South Africa

Urbanisation is relatively recent process in third world countries where it is very rapid. Among all African countries urbanisation is more pronounced in South Africa. Its strong industrial and manufacturing base is responsible for its rapid urbanisation. According to 2001 census, total urban population is 58 per cent which accounts 4 per cent increase from 1996 census, that is, 54 per cent. Most rapid urbanisation is taking place around the largest cities like Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth, East London, Bloemfontein and the towns of Orange Free State –Goldfield. These cities are growing at unprecedented manner in terms of demography and space and have given rise to various problems related to urbanisation. They are facing acute problems of rural-urban migration, lack of urban governance, transport crisis, urban poverty, increasing rate of crime, high density living, pollution of air and water, insufficient job opportunities etc. with varying scale and intensity. The present study deals with the changing nature of rural to urban migration, urban poverty and crime in post-apartheid period.

Rashmi Rani Anand is pursuing Ph.D in the Centre for African studies at School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She did Masters in geography from Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi. She taught papers like Urban Geography, Oceanography and Climatology as an assistant professor (guest) at Delhi University.