Events in 1988 confirmed trends in the government's 'orderly urbanisation' policy, since the overhaul of influx control legislation in 1986. The object of the policy is to limit the number of people living permanently outside the bantustans, and to disperse those without access to 'approved' housing by demolishing 'illegal' squatter camps and clearing 'slums'.
While some townships were upgraded during 1988 and some squatter camps turned into 'site and service schemes', other squatter communities came under pressure to move. It is not yet clear whether consistent policies are being applied by local authorities throughout the country.
'ORDERLY URBANISATION'
In the Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vaal (PWV) area a complex approach emerged in the course of the year. In mid-1987 some studies had identified as many as 10,000 shack dwellers facing eviction and removal in terms of the new policy. By the end of that year some 4,600 structures had been demolished.
At the same time central government and local planning bodies conducted studies to identify sites for the permanent settlement of other squatters and the upgrading of some existing camps. This formed part of upgrading exercises across the country. In April 1987 the Minister of Constitutional Development and Planning appointed a Consortium of Consultants to identify sites for settlement in the PWV. The Regional Services Council was also involved in the studies.
Joint Management Centres (JMCs) have been identified as key agents in the upgrading exercises. The JMCs, set up in the late 1970s and composed of police, military and local government officials operating in secret, have as their brief combatting resistance, countering anti-apartheid organisations and engineering co-optive schemes such as the upgrading of townships. In co-operation with other organs of local and regional government, they attempt to alleviate what are seen as the material sources of resistance and therefore to deny 'revolutionaries' causes around which to mobilise.
In the second half of the year several site-and-service schemes were established for permanent settlement by squatters. In one scheme falling under the Transvaal Provincial Administration, 57,609 sites were provided for squatters in the southern and western Transvaal.
In the rest of the country, however, the demolition of camps continued, as did other repressive aspects of the government's policy of population control - the removal of 'black spots', consolidation of bantustans and the break-up of mixed communes. In July the Minister of Constitutional Development and Planning reported to parliament that 47,617 people had been resettled in the course of 1987, most as a consequence of what he called 'slum-clearance' and the removal of squatter camps. In September he revealed that the government still planned to move 248,000 people, most of them squatters in the Eastern Cape. Included in the statistics were some 'black spots' and squatters on farms.
HARSH NEW LAWS
In terms of new legislation placed before parliament in August 1988, it became clear that the government was equipping itself to move large numbers of people. The Prevention of Illegal Squatting Amendment Bill proposed to increase the penalties on landowners who allowed people to settle illegally on their property, removed from the court their powers to issue interdicts halting demolition of squatter camps and do away with the obligations of local authorities to provide shelter for homeless people legally in the areas under their jurisdiction.
The proposals met with widespread protests. In September representatives of squatter and community organisations, as well as the major trade union federations met the Minister of Constitutional Development and Planning to protest at the Bill. Protests came from other quarters as well. Nevertheless, the bill was approved by the white House of Assembly and the President's Council and by the end of 1988, required only the signature of the State President to become law.
LAWAAIKAMP
The Bill is intended partly to combat the tactics used by communities like the one at Lawaai-kamp, near George in the south-western Cape, where African residents of a shanty town have resisted their removal to a site further afield since 1984. Successful appeals to the courts have delayed demolition on a number of occasions. In July eviction orders were served on 120 residents in a new bid by the George municipality to move the community. Most of the residents again challenged the orders in the courts, but some who did not had their homes razed. Of the original community of some 5,000 people, 3,500 had been forced by various pressures to move by October. The latest court challenges were also still pending as the year closed.
OUKASIE - BRITS
In the western Transvaal town of Brits, residents of the black township Oukasie continued, for the third year running, to resist removal to a new site 25 kilometres away. The authorities want to move the township because of its proximity to a white suburb. Following the depreciation of the township in 1987 - which changed the status of the residents from permanent tenants to squatters - the Minister of Constitutional Development and Planning designated the area an emergency camp in June 1988. This measure allowed the authorities to impose restrictions on those allowed to enter or live in the area and was aimed at forcing residents to move. Since June, service charges have been increased, soldiers have conducted a census of the area and a permanent military and police presence has been established. In spite of these tactics, by the end of the year 800 families were still refusing to move.
REMOVAL OF SQUATTER CAMPS
The removal of people deemed to be squatters took place in other parts of the country during 1988: around Durban where more than 1.7 million people live in shack settlements, on the East Rand and in the Eastern Cape and Border region, where over 200,000 squatters are still scheduled for removal in terms of the figures released in July. Groups monitoring removals indicated in September, that evictions of former labour tenants on farms were also being stepped up in rural areas of Natal. According to the Durban Legal Resources Centre 'tens of thousands of people are circulating in Natal as internal refugees'.
