A new apartheid? The spatial implications of fear of crime in Cape Town, South Africa

This paper examines the fear of crime in post-apartheid South Africa and its impact on urban space and form, focusing in particular on Cape Town. South African statistics point to alarming increases in serious crime over recent years and, although such statistics are considered unreliable, reflecting to some extent increases in the rate of crime reporting, the public perception is nonetheless one of decreased security. Attempts to mitigate fear have resulted increasingly in the creation of fortified enclaves and a withdrawal from public space. Although the more extreme manifestations are restricted to affluent areas, levels of residential protection have increased among all groups. As in other parts of the world, this “architecture of fear” results in growing danger within the public domain and the increasing polarization of social groups. The paper argues that this trend in South Africa perpetuates the social divisions that were inherent in the apartheid state into the post-apartheid context, with the fear of crime being used as a justification for a predominantly racist fear of difference.