The impact of Bophuthatswana's independence on the geographical landscape of Thaba Nchu - Selosesha
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Date
1994-11
Authors
Kwaw, Isaac Wilson
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Free State
Abstract
This study focuses on the impact of Bophuthatswana's independence
as a political process on the geographical landscape of Thaba
Nchu-Selosesha from a political geographical perspective in the
period from 1976 to 1992.
In spite of a lack of international acceptance of Bophu thatswana'
s independence, independence as a political process is a
fact that cannot be disputed. From the time of the country's
inception, a number of strategies and policies were instituted
to meet the aspirations of the people. These strategies and
polices include the following:
* the process of nation-building and fostering unity among the
fragmented blocks of land which constituted Bophuthatswana;
* to promote industrial development at a given centre supported
by industrial incentives to attract local and foreign
investors which aim to develop the economic potential of
those centres;
* to establish district administrative centres;
* to stimulate housing development;
* to promote educational development;
* to improve health development; and
* to promote the development of recreational, culture and
tourism facilities.
This research attempts to unveil the spatial manifestation of the
implementation of the strategies and policies on the geographical
landscape of Thaba Nchu-Selosesha from 1976 to 1992. The overall
objectives of the research include the following:
* to review the literature on the impact of political process
on land-use patterns, and to identify process models which
have been used for political geographical analysis;
* to examine the pre-independent political processes and to
give a description of the pre-independent geographical
landscape of Thaba Nchu-Selosesha as in 1976;
* to analyze independence as a political and socioeconomic
process associated with the transformation
of the pre-independence geographical
landscape of Thaba Nchu-Selosesha from 1977 to 1992;
* to serve as a stock-taking of the landscape patterns
created by independence as Bophuthatswana enters
a new political dispensation resulting from the country's
re-incorporation into a democratic South Africa;
* to provide scenarios of possible changes in the
geographical landscape of Thaba Nchu-Selosesha in a changing
South Africa; and
* to contribute to the knowledge and understanding of the
impact of independence as a political process on landscape
patterns.
In trying to achieve the above objectives, the research placed
the study area in the context of the pre-independent geographical
landscape and its salient morphological features were identified
as a basis for assessing the impact of independence as a political
process.
The aerial photographs of the study area for 1976 and 1992 were
extrapolated on a scale of 1:50 000 and the former was superimposed
on the latter to identify expansion and new land-use
patterns which have emerged in the study area. In addition, horizontal
photographs were taken of the visible evidence of changes
which cannot be discerned on the 1992 map. The landscape components studied included the following: political, administrative,
settlement, housing, commercial, industrial,
cultural, recreational and tourism, and health.
educational,
The ultimate findings about the spatial manifestation of the
impact of independence as a political process after fifteen years
indicated that the physical structures, forms and functioning of
Thaba Nchu-Selosesha had undergone a tremendous transformation.
If an assessment is made of the changes in the landscape of Thaba
Nchu-Selosesha from 1976 to 1992 it appears that all ten landscape
components being analyzed had been transformed as a result
of Bophuthatswana's political independence as a changing political
process. The political landscape was transformed from a
South African homeland, together with the adjacent white town
(Thaba Nchu) landscape into a unique landscape, typical of Bophuthatswana
national ism. The administrative infrastructure was
transformed into a district administrative center for the Thaba
Nchu district as a whole. The amalgamation of the Selosesha Town
Council with the Thaba Nchu Municipal Council merged the two
boundaries and a new urban boundary was drawn.
The settlement landscape had been moulded during the pre-independent
era into two distinct settlement patterns, viz. formal urban
(Selosesha and Thaba Nchu) and informal settlements (African rural
villages and the Bultfonteins), including the squatter
settlement of Kromdraai. Since independence the most major
transformation of the settlement landscape was: the evacuation
of Kromdraai squatter settlement in 1979; the political, administrative,
and spatial amalgamation of the Thaba Nchu and Selosesha
towns; the expansion of Selosesha towards Unit 1, the emergence
of an elite suburb north of Thaba Nchu town; and the continuation
of an informal housing sprawl in the informal settlements where
some ad hoc upgrading of individual housing units materialized.
The industrial landscape only emerged after independence when
Thaba Nchu-Selosesha was proclaimed as an Industrial Development
Point within Bophuthatswana's space economy. Industrial development
was not only the largest financial injection which Thaba
Nchu received from the national government since independence but
is also caused the greatest scale of landscape transformation in
the study area. The commercial landscape did not only expand
towards Selosesha and the surrounding informal settlements, but
the original CBD of Thaba Nchu town is virtually unrecognisable
as new buildings were erected to replace the old ones. Infrastructural
development, in a spatially integrated planning
approach to unite the Thaba Nchu Shopping Centre at Selosesha
with Thaba Nchu's CBD, was undertaken.
The educational landscape was expanded as a result of the
construction of a number of new educational facilities (of which
the Thaba Nchu College of Education and the Manpower Training
Centre are the most prominent), as well as the upgrading and
relocation of educational facilities. The health landscape was
transformed by the establishment of a larger and more sophisticated
variety of health facilities. The cultural landscape came
to be dominated by the Mmabana Cultural Centre in the CBD, while
the tourist landscape emerged with the building of the Naledi
Sun.
It is thus clear that a large variety of types and scales of
landscape transformations occurred in Thaba Nchu-Selosesha as a
result of the political independence of Bophuthatswana in 1977
of which the settlement, industrial, commercial, and educational
landscape transformations are the most prominent. At the same
time, new landscapes, e.g. political, administrative, industrial,
commercial, educational, cultural, and tour ism emerged. There are
instances where the pre-independent physical patterns remained
e.g. formal and informal settlements and formal and informal
housing.
In conclusion, a process model has been proposed by which the
changing geographical landscape of Thaba Nchu-Selosesha can be
explained.
Description
Keywords
Homelands (South Africa) -- Politics and government, Bophuthatswana -- History, Bophuthatswana (Thaba 'Nchu) -- Politics and government, Dissertation (M.A. (Geography))--University of the Free State, 1994