Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to investigate the lived spaces created by African migrants and
people of diverse ethnicity in the Pretoria CBD, and to determine the implications that they
could have for the spatial planning disciplines. A literature study provided the parameters for
the phenomenological approach to the investigation. This depended upon the researcher
closely acquainting himself geographically with the selected area and building trusting
relationships with the migrant community there in order to gauge the suitability of the
Pretoria CBD for a large and growing population of African migrants and people of diverse
ethnicity, for whom it was not originally designed. The study developed ethnographic and
spatial indicators for the lived spaces that African migrants may generate in a city space
context. It also expanded the concept of spatiality, to better understand the everyday lived
spaces of African migrants and people of diverse ethnicity within the Pretoria CBD. Results of
the investigation indicate that ethnographic indicators and spatial principles may be
developed that describe the behaviour of African migrants and people of diverse ethnicity in a
city space context such as the Pretoria CBD, where public spaces are not adequate for these
groups of people that suffer from marginalisation and exclusion. Ethnographic indicators and
concepts such as marginalisation, loss of power and spatial autonomy have a profound
influence on the aspirations, perceptions and use of public space in the Pretoria CBD.
Recommendations from the findings of this study are made for the spatial planning disciplines
as well as the authorities that represent power in the Pretoria CBD.
