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State, law and community in the politics of housing in South Africa: 1990-2000
The housing crisis in South Africa has over time resulted in the experience of waiting for housing on the part of marginalised communities. Housing policy and politics have accordingly historically constituted a site where state power is both imposed and contested. These processes had their roots in...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English |
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Department of Historical Studies
2026
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| _version_ | 1867613239259430912 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Van Huyssteen, Elsa |
| author2 | Sen, Anandaroop |
| author_browse | Sen, Anandaroop Van Huyssteen, Elsa |
| author_facet | Sen, Anandaroop Van Huyssteen, Elsa |
| author_sort | Van Huyssteen, Elsa |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | The housing crisis in South Africa has over time resulted in the experience of waiting for housing on the part of marginalised communities. Housing policy and politics have accordingly historically constituted a site where state power is both imposed and contested. These processes had their roots in apartheid-era urbanisation policy, but took on a different character during the late-apartheid and early post-apartheid period. This dissertation describes and analyses the experience of waiting, first for democracy and then for housing, both as a passive experience of the power of the state, and as a terrain where state power is resisted, contested and negotiated. The focus is mainly on the period 1990-2000 in the Cape Town metropolitan area, but the research relies on reported judgments of South African courts across the country from 1949 to 2000 in order to trace the changing ways in which different aspects of housing policy and its implementation were challenged over time, in court, by marginalised individuals and communities, sometimes assisted by civil society organisations, legal aid organisations and progressive lawyers in private practice. This is supplemented by the use of other legal documents and case studies recorded by civil society organisations and oral histories that describe the experiences of communities and their lawyers. The aim is to understand the interaction between the state, courts, and community and civil society activism and mobilisation in the shaping of housing policy and its implementation, particularly the impact of the political transition and the resultant constitutional right to housing, which allowed the use of various rights-based strategies, on those processes. The analysis shows that waiting communities are able to engage in a number of quiet encroachments as well as the mobilisation of strategic community agency, and while state power remains ever-present, and courts have an uneven record of challenging that power, in this way communities have the capacity to contest the condition of waiting and improve their access to housing. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/42786 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | English eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:32:58.612Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publishDateRange | 2026 |
| publishDateSort | 2026 |
| publisher | Department of Historical Studies |
| publisherStr | Department of Historical Studies |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/42786 State, law and community in the politics of housing in South Africa: 1990-2000 Van Huyssteen, Elsa Sen, Anandaroop Politics Housing South Africa The housing crisis in South Africa has over time resulted in the experience of waiting for housing on the part of marginalised communities. Housing policy and politics have accordingly historically constituted a site where state power is both imposed and contested. These processes had their roots in apartheid-era urbanisation policy, but took on a different character during the late-apartheid and early post-apartheid period. This dissertation describes and analyses the experience of waiting, first for democracy and then for housing, both as a passive experience of the power of the state, and as a terrain where state power is resisted, contested and negotiated. The focus is mainly on the period 1990-2000 in the Cape Town metropolitan area, but the research relies on reported judgments of South African courts across the country from 1949 to 2000 in order to trace the changing ways in which different aspects of housing policy and its implementation were challenged over time, in court, by marginalised individuals and communities, sometimes assisted by civil society organisations, legal aid organisations and progressive lawyers in private practice. This is supplemented by the use of other legal documents and case studies recorded by civil society organisations and oral histories that describe the experiences of communities and their lawyers. The aim is to understand the interaction between the state, courts, and community and civil society activism and mobilisation in the shaping of housing policy and its implementation, particularly the impact of the political transition and the resultant constitutional right to housing, which allowed the use of various rights-based strategies, on those processes. The analysis shows that waiting communities are able to engage in a number of quiet encroachments as well as the mobilisation of strategic community agency, and while state power remains ever-present, and courts have an uneven record of challenging that power, in this way communities have the capacity to contest the condition of waiting and improve their access to housing. 2026-01-30T11:26:41Z 2026-01-30T11:26:41Z 2025 2026-01-30T10:59:20Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters Masters http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42786 en eng application/pdf Department of Historical Studies Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Politics Housing South Africa Van Huyssteen, Elsa State, law and community in the politics of housing in South Africa: 1990-2000 |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | State, law and community in the politics of housing in South Africa: 1990-2000 |
| title_full | State, law and community in the politics of housing in South Africa: 1990-2000 |
| title_fullStr | State, law and community in the politics of housing in South Africa: 1990-2000 |
| title_full_unstemmed | State, law and community in the politics of housing in South Africa: 1990-2000 |
| title_short | State, law and community in the politics of housing in South Africa: 1990-2000 |
| title_sort | state law and community in the politics of housing in south africa 1990 2000 |
| topic | Politics Housing South Africa |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42786 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT vanhuyssteenelsa statelawandcommunityinthepoliticsofhousinginsouthafrica19902000 |