Local government and coloured residential segregation in Port Elizabeth, 1964-1976

Abstract

Studies of racial territorial segregation affecting the coloured population in Port Elizabeth tend to perceive it as an outcome of a power struggle between central and local government over the implementation of apartheid legislation. This paper explores the underlying economic forces on the local government to bring about residential segregation and address the coloured housing crisis in the city. It is proposed that whereas central government motives for segregation were primarily political, local government was influenced largely by economic considerations. Local government objectives were severely compromised through both local industrial interests and the implementation of central government Group Areas policies.