Laila Simon
As a person relocating from Durban to Cape Town, the spatial inequality visible here is deeply unsettling. This city remains one of the most segregated urban areas in South Africa, a stark reminder of how the legacy of apartheid is still entrenched in its planning, infrastructure, and socioeconomic divisions.
This spatial divide is not accidental, it is the result of historic and ongoing systemic inequality. Cape Town was meticulously engineered during apartheid through legislation like the Group Areas Act, forcibly removing communities of colour to the periphery, and these spatial dynamics have been preserved through modern zoning laws, unaffordable housing policies, and a lack of infrastructural investment in black and brown areas, particularly the Cape Flats.
Unequal Public Investment, Urban Development, and Service Delivery Not Accidental
The current ruling party of the Western Cape, the Democratic Alliance, has done little to change this. While the DA presents itself as a “clean governance” party, it continues to maintain a status quo that benefits the wealthy and predominantly white suburbs, while neglecting historically disadvantaged communities. Public investment, urban development, and service delivery remain disproportionately skewed in favour of suburbs like Constantia, Rondebosch, or Sea Point, compared to places like Mitchells Plain, Khayelitsha, or Bonteheuwel.
The DA often deflects criticism by blaming the national government, particularly the ANC. Let me be clear – I am not happy with the ANC either. But the DA’s strategy of constant deflection, arrogance, and refusal to acknowledge its own complicity in preserving apartheid-era structures is deeply problematic. Their policies around spatial planning, transport, and housing reflect a government more concerned with maintaining an international image of a “world-class city” than uplifting its most vulnerable citizens.
Dehumanising Daily Commutes Amidst Rampant Crime
The daily reality of working-class Capetonians, especially people of colour, includes long, expensive commutes from the margins of the city to economic hubs. This is not just inconvenient, it’s dehumanising and perpetuates cycles of poverty. According to the Western Cape Government’s own Integrated Public Transport Network (IPTN) assessments, the average low-income commuter in Cape Town travels between 1.5 to 3 hours daily. This exacerbates inequality and reduces quality of life.
The DA’s neglect is also evident in its failure to address rampant crime, gangsterism, and drug abuse in areas like the Cape Flats. There’s an almost deliberate absence of meaningful intervention. Police visibility is low, community resources are underfunded, and there’s little to no effort to address the root causes of violence, such as unemployment and trauma.
Gentrification, Unequal Access to Education & a Layered System of Exclusion
Meanwhile, gentrification is displacing long-standing communities. Neighbourhoods like Bo-Kaap, with rich cultural histories and families rooted there for generations, are being commercialised for tourism and profit. This is cultural erasure in the name of development.
Another area where the DA’s priorities become painfully clear is in education. In 2025, the Western Cape Education Department (under DA governance) cut approximately 2,400 teaching posts due to a funding shortfall. While the provincial government blames national treasury, the consequences have landed hardest on poor and working-class communities. Class sizes in public schools have ballooned to 50–60 learners per teacher, drastically reducing the quality of education.
In many cases, learners are now forced to attend overcrowded schools, often in areas rife with gangsterism and poor infrastructure, or turn to expensive private institutions if their families can afford it. The result is a layered system of exclusion, where access to education and safety is becoming a privilege, not a right.
It’s hard not to see this as strategic: undermining public education, limiting opportunity, and keeping black and brown children exactly where the system wants them, disempowered, under-resourced, and boxed into generational cycles of poverty.
WATCH: Neo-Apartheid Housing – Cape Town Under Fire
DA Upholding the Very Structures Created by Apartheid
So I ask, particularly to people of colour, and to white South Africans who claim to be anti-apartheid, why would you continue to vote for a party that upholds the very structures apartheid created?
A party that upholds zoning and development regulations that keep communities racially and economically divided?
A party that prioritises aesthetics and international tourism over justice and equity?
A party that slashes education resources in the very communities that need upliftment the most?
We must stop accepting the narrative that the DA is the only viable alternative. Governance is about more than spreadsheets and audits, it’s about people, justice, and transformation.
I will always speak my absolute truth, unapologetically
See More of Johnny Miller’s Photos and Stories on Spacial Inequality Below
The Architecture of Separation: Inequality Photo Series Makes Waves
