RACIAL DESEGREGATION AND INNER-CITY DECAY IN JOHANNESBURG

In the declining years of apartheid, the high-rise district of Johanne sburg's inner city underwent rapid racial desegregation. This period o f desegregation saw, for the first time in over 50 years, the re-emerg ence of overcrowded slums in the inner city. This study explores the r elationship between the origins of inner city decay and the dynamics o f racial desegregation. The results show that the decay of inner city apartment buildings had little to do with racial desegregation per se. Most black residents who braved apartheid laws to live in the inner c ity belonged to more-or-less the same social class as, and lived under similar conditions to, their white counterparts. Inner city decay, ch aracterised by overcrowding and the breakdown of basic services, was r estricted to older apartment buildings which were occupied by the leas t skilled and poorest black residents. The vicious cycle of overcrowdi ng and poor maintenance that led to the decay of certain apartment bui ldings was probably the result of the unstable set of tenure relations hips which characterised these older apartment buildings. These relati onships were: (i) the desperate need for housing among this homeless a nd impoverished class of blacks, (ii) the high costs of maintenance co upled with low returns on older buildings, (iii) the financially insec ure positions of some landlords and (iv) forms of ownership which allo wed landlords to neglect their properties without incurring financial losses to themselves.