Tshwane 2055 en die (On)moontlikheid van Ruimtelike Geregtigheid
Die Tshwane 2055 beleidsdokument bevat verskeie verwysings na
ruimtelike geregtigheid. Deur te steun op die werk van Henri Lefebvre en
Doreen Massey verskaf die artikel ’n inhoud aan die konsep van ruimtelike
geregtigheid en reageer daardeur op Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos se
kritiek dat ruimtelike geregtigheid onvoldoende teoretiese grondslag het
en nie bloot kan dui op geregtigheid binne ruimtes nie. Teen die
agtergrond van hierdie teorieë, tesame met die uitkoms en nadraai van
die Schubart Park beslissing, is die sentrale argument dat Tswhane 2055
beide die moontlikheid en onmoontlikheid van ruimtelike geregtigheid
inhou. Die UN-HABITAT verslag van die verenigde nasies en Joburg 2030
dien as voorbeelde van die spanning tussen stedelike opknappingoogmerke
en geregtigheid.
In October 2012 the Constitutional Court ordered the Tshwane
Metropolitan Council (“the City”) to meaningfully engage with the
residents of Schubart Park regarding their interim relocation and the
restoration of the housing complex. This interfered with the City’s plans
to demolish the apartment blocks and the Tshwane 2055 plan now
includes the rejuvenation of the Schubart Park housing complex in phase
1 of the West Capital Project, at an estimated cost of R1.25 billion. In this
article I critically consider the definition of, and references to, spatial
justice in the Tshwane 2055 plan. The central question is whether these
references present the possibility of spatial justice as envisaged by
Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos. Spatial justice, understood from a radical
geographical perspective, acknowledges that space produces and is
produced by unequal social relationships and insists on inhabitance as
opposed to habitat. Against the backdrop of spatial justice and with
reference to the aftermath of the Schubart Park case I explore the
relationship between law, space and justice. I take up in turn the history,
present and future of the Schubart Park apartment complex and the
Tshwane 2055 plan. Thereafter, I look at what the concept of spatial
justice could and should entail by referring to the work of Andreas
Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos, Doreen Massey and Henri Lefebvre and
lastly, I compare the Tshwane 2055 plan with Joburg 2030 and the United
Nation’s UN-HABITAT policy, in order to illustrate a discord between the
aims of gentrification and spatial justice.
