The politics of territory and place in post-apartheid South Africa: the disputed area of Bushbuckridge

The new-found democracy in post-apartheid South Africa sr ns bound to confr ont the legacies of apartheid, one of which was the segregated spaces desig ned to foster a separate existence of different officially defined racial a nd ethnic groups. As apartheid came to an end and a negotiated settlement e nsued in 1992, attention,vas pain to the reorganisation of society and its spaces in line with the vision of a non-racial democratic South Africa. Att empts To reorganise the apartheid territorial divisions by means of new bou ndaries created some new problems. This paper analyses the provincial bound ary dispute between Mpumalanga and Northern Province over Bushbuckridge whi ch began in 1993 and remained unresolved at the end of 1998. Ir argues that the dispute is not only about the boundary, in question bur also about opp ortunities and constraints offered by the process of transformation. The Bu shbuckridge boundary dispute became more pronounced after the 1994 national election, although the problem itself pre-dated the election. Its later co mplications can be primarily laid at the door of the African National Congr ess, as the leading player in the post-apartheid government.