Urbanization in South Africa

Gentrification exasperating Xenophobia

Résumé

In recent years there has been a significant increase in international invest-ment in order to promote efforts to urbanize growing African cities. As many occupy land informally, the displa-cement of lower income groups to better profit on land demands has risen. This is particularly evident in the South African city of Cape Town. This phenome-non is a contributing factor to the exaspera-tion of the recent xenophobic attacks in South Africa due to clashing cultures and inadequate urbaniza-tion planning. An analysis of gentrifi-cation in the African context demonstrates that it is far less class based than it is ethnically based. The prevalence of urbani-zation and how urban planning harms the disenfranchised; evi-dence that gentrifica-tion is ethically/ culturally based using the case study of Bo-Kaap in Cape Town; and a demons-tration of how a new form of gentrification, “studen-tification”, are me-thods in which xeno-phobic attacks in South Africa are further agitated.