Slum clearance in South Africa

Slum clearance in South Africa has been used as an urban renewal strategy to regenerate derelict or run-down districts, often to be replaced with alternative developments or new housing.

[1] The city council was given permission by the Central Housing Board to include as many four-storey blocks of flats as it desired[2] and by 1942 was set to construct 13,000 dwellings as part of clearance projects.

[6] Rather, for instance in Sophiatown, 2,000 armed police surrounded the area and 150 families at a time were given eviction notices with just 12 hours to leave.

Under Apartheid, the non-White families evicted were deemed unfit to reside in the city, yet were relocated close enough that they could still commute to work.

Reports in 1959 suggested that some slums vacated by native Africans, particularly in the city of Pretoria, were being subsequently populated by poor white families rather than being demolished.