Private Archipelagos
Gauteng is home to more than a quarter of the country’s population with approximately 15 million people. It is the financial hub of Africa as it contains the administrative capital, Pretoria, and other large areas such as Johannesburg and Sandton. However this financial center is shifting northwards through private developments. Since the discovery of gold, private development have been growing, starting from company towns for the mine workers to industrial hubs created along the main circulation networks to the establishment of private cities, that is to say, gated communities located within an even larger enclosed territory. The trend towards privatization has been growing since 1994, both due to the growth of industry and the search for secure environments, leading to an increasingly segregated City. Three case studies -Company towns, industrial Parks and Planned cities- have been analyzed to understand how they have impacted and are co-dependent of their surroundings. The research has revealed conditions in which the formal and informal come together at the intersection between public and private.
Company Town
Industrial Park
Planned Settlement
Private Archipelagos
Gauteng
Gauteng is home to more than a quarter of the country’s population with approximately 15 million people. It is the financial hub of Africa as it contains the administrative capital, Pretoria, and other large areas such as Johannesburg and Sandton. However this financial center is shifting northwards through private developments. Since the discovery of gold, private development have been growing, starting from company towns for the mine workers to industrial hubs created along the main circulation networks to the establishment of private cities, that is to say, gated communities located within an even larger enclosed territory. The trend towards privatization has been growing since 1994, both due to the growth of industry and the search for secure environments, leading to an increasingly segregated City. Three case studies -Company towns, industrial Parks and Planned cities- have been analyzed to understand how they have impacted and are co-dependent of their surroundings. The research has revealed conditions in which the formal and informal come together at the intersection between public and private.
Company Town
Company Town
Carletonville, Merafong Municipality
Company towns are residential complexes that come fit with the basic services, developed by the mining company and adjacent to the sources of extraction. There are several types, for the black workers they are called compounds or hostels, are unisex, gated and are located within the mining premises. For the white or mixed race workers better quality residences are provided outside of the premises and are ungated. Carletonville was selected as a case study for being the area with the deepest gold mines in the World, with up to six different mining companies operating independently, of which many remain active today. Around the area, multiple other types of settlements have surfaced to support the industry, and provide more modern forms of housing, such as the townships (Khutsong and Wadeville) and gated communities. In 2013, the mining company of Blyvooruitzicht closed operations and left the settlements around it that depended on their electricity, water, security and maintenance services, vulnerable. This led to the growth of informal settlements and criminal activity in the area, until 2020, when operations resumed.
