Tshwane 2055 and the (im)possibility of spatial justice

Abstract

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.