This paper traces the development of housing policy in South Africa fr
om its emergence in the 1920s as a response to social and public healt
h problems associated with accelerated urbanisation to its current dep
loyment as a vehicle of 'reconstruction and development' in the post-a
partheid order. The account focuses on the implication of housing poli
cy in the successive socio-political projects of 'segregation' and 'ap
artheid' between the 1930s and the mid-1970s, as well as protracted at
tempts at policy reform during the late 1970s and 1980s in the afterma
th of the 'township revolt'. It deals primarily with changing response
s to what remained, until quite recently, a central concern of housing
policy in South Africa - the attempt to 'contain' urbanisation within
the African population. From this retrospective view, the paper moves
to an examination of the key difficulties embedded in current housing
policy. These are bound up with efforts to overcome the continuing ho
using 'backlog' in ways which, on the one hand, remain wedded to a sim
plistic, 'supply side' approach and, on the other, fail to address the
social and spatial legacy of aprtheid 'social engineering' in South A
frican cities. The paper concludes with a brief review of the prospect
s for developing a more effective policy framework in the future. (C)
1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.