After , the architecture of apartheid β the separation of rich and poor, black and white β was to be eradicated with creative and determined urban planning. It has not quite happened. Tell us: how have South African cities changed in the 25 years after apartheid? Johannesburg is the bastard child of the worst aspects of capitalist greed and 20th-century racism. Nearly years after its formation, this sprawling metropolis is still scarred by the sins of its genesis.
These remain cities divided. The rich of Johannesburg still live in the sumptuous northern suburbs, where the food at some restaurants is Michelin-star quality and house prices are eye-watering. These areas remain largely white, although that is changing at a glacial pace. The workers are in Soweto and Alexandra and other poor, crime-plagued black enclaves. It has always been this way with Johannesburg, and it remains pretty much as divided 25 years after apartheid collapsed and 29 years after Nelson Mandela walked out of prison.
Its population of nearly 10 million are drawn from all corners of South Africa and increasingly from Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Malawi and Bangladesh. The city remains a magnet for those hoping for a better life. Twenty-five years after the fall of the brutal apartheid regime, South Africa's cities remain hugely divided, both economically and racially. This week Guardian Cities explores the incredible changes taking place, the challenges faced and the projects that bring hope.
Africa correspondent Jason Burke reports from the Flats, where violence and death are endemic just miles from Cape Town's spectacular beaches and trendy cafes. Author Niq Mhlongo pens a love letter to the "other Soweto", one that visitors to gentrified Vilakazi Street never see.
We hear from Port Elizabeth, where one architect is using recycled materials to transform his city, and Durban, where a surf school is changing the lives of vulnerable children. We explore the deadly underground world of zama zama gold miners operating illegally under the city of Johannesburg, visit the Afrikaner-only town of Orania and publish an extraordinary photo essay by Magnum nominee Lindokuhle Sobekwa, who documents life in a formerly white-dominated area where his mother once worked as a domestic helper.
