This paper focuses on attempts to reconfigure spaces in post-apartheid South African cities. The fusion of modernist planning ideologies with racial elaborations during the apartheid era up until the end of apartheid in the early 1990s in the planning of South African cities left them with dysfunctional and segregated spaces. Apartheid cities became synonymous to urban decay, low densities and spatial segregation of different racial groups and land uses with residential areas of poor city residents located at the urban periphery away from socio-economic opportunities. With the advent of democracy in South Africa there have been many serious minded attempts to reorganise and redefine spaces in post-apartheid South African cities with the aim of promoting regeneration, high densities, mixed land uses, spatial integration and hybridity. However, more than 15 years down the line since the inception of such initiatives, spatial segregation and dsyfunctionality still hounds South African cities. This paper critically analyses various initiatives aimed at reconfiguring spaces in the South African city of Durban with the aim of showing the forces and factors that promote the transformation of South African cities. A historical analysis of the city of Durban from colonial times to present is adopted to show how the present spaces of the cities in South Africa gradually evolved. The paper further presents the current approaches/methodologies in transforming the South African city including challenges and the impact of the various city projects.
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