The impact of Bophuthatswana's independence on the geographical landscape of Thaba Nchu - Selosesha

[摘要] This study focuses on the impact of Bophuthatswana's independenceas a political process on the geographical landscape of ThabaNchu-Selosesha from a political geographical perspective in theperiod from 1976 to 1992.In spite of a lack of international acceptance of Bophu thatswana's independence, independence as a political process is afact that cannot be disputed. From the time of the country'sinception, a number of strategies and policies were institutedto meet the aspirations of the people. These strategies andpolices include the following:* the process of nation-building and fostering unity among thefragmented blocks of land which constituted Bophuthatswana;* to promote industrial development at a given centre supportedby industrial incentives to attract local and foreigninvestors which aim to develop the economic potential ofthose centres;* to establish district administrative centres;* to stimulate housing development;* to promote educational development;* to improve health development; and* to promote the development of recreational, culture andtourism facilities.This research attempts to unveil the spatial manifestation of theimplementation of the strategies and policies on the geographicallandscape of Thaba Nchu-Selosesha from 1976 to 1992. The overallobjectives of the research include the following:* to review the literature on the impact of political processon land-use patterns, and to identify process models whichhave been used for political geographical analysis;* to examine the pre-independent political processes and togive a description of the pre-independent geographicallandscape of Thaba Nchu-Selosesha as in 1976;* to analyze independence as a political and socioeconomicprocess associated with the transformationof the pre-independence geographicallandscape of Thaba Nchu-Selosesha from 1977 to 1992;* to serve as a stock-taking of the landscape patternscreated by independence as Bophuthatswana entersa new political dispensation resulting from the country'sre-incorporation into a democratic South Africa;* to provide scenarios of possible changes in thegeographical landscape of Thaba Nchu-Selosesha in a changingSouth Africa; and* to contribute to the knowledge and understanding of theimpact of independence as a political process on landscapepatterns.In trying to achieve the above objectives, the research placedthe study area in the context of the pre-independent geographicallandscape and its salient morphological features were identifiedas a basis for assessing the impact of independence as a politicalprocess.The aerial photographs of the study area for 1976 and 1992 wereextrapolated on a scale of 1:50 000 and the former was superimposedon the latter to identify expansion and new land-usepatterns which have emerged in the study area. In addition, horizontalphotographs were taken of the visible evidence of changeswhich cannot be discerned on the 1992 map. The landscape components studied included the following: political, administrative,settlement, housing, commercial, industrial,cultural, recreational and tourism, and health.educational,The ultimate findings about the spatial manifestation of theimpact of independence as a political process after fifteen yearsindicated that the physical structures, forms and functioning ofThaba Nchu-Selosesha had undergone a tremendous transformation.If an assessment is made of the changes in the landscape of ThabaNchu-Selosesha from 1976 to 1992 it appears that all ten landscapecomponents being analyzed had been transformed as a resultof Bophuthatswana's political independence as a changing politicalprocess. The political landscape was transformed from aSouth African homeland, together with the adjacent white town(Thaba Nchu) landscape into a unique landscape, typical of Bophuthatswananational ism. The administrative infrastructure wastransformed into a district administrative center for the ThabaNchu district as a whole. The amalgamation of the Selosesha TownCouncil with the Thaba Nchu Municipal Council merged the twoboundaries and a new urban boundary was drawn.The settlement landscape had been moulded during the pre-independentera into two distinct settlement patterns, viz. formal urban(Selosesha and Thaba Nchu) and informal settlements (African ruralvillages and the Bultfonteins), including the squattersettlement of Kromdraai. Since independence the most majortransformation of the settlement landscape was: the evacuationof Kromdraai squatter settlement in 1979; the political, administrative,and spatial amalgamation of the Thaba Nchu and Seloseshatowns; the expansion of Selosesha towards Unit 1, the emergenceof an elite suburb north of Thaba Nchu town; and the continuationof an informal housing sprawl in the informal settlements wheresome ad hoc upgrading of individual housing units materialized.The industrial landscape only emerged after independence whenThaba Nchu-Selosesha was proclaimed as an Industrial DevelopmentPoint within Bophuthatswana's space economy. Industrial developmentwas not only the largest financial injection which ThabaNchu received from the national government since independence butis also caused the greatest scale of landscape transformation inthe study area. The commercial landscape did not only expandtowards Selosesha and the surrounding informal settlements, butthe original CBD of Thaba Nchu town is virtually unrecognisableas new buildings were erected to replace the old ones. Infrastructuraldevelopment, in a spatially integrated planningapproach to unite the Thaba Nchu Shopping Centre at Seloseshawith Thaba Nchu's CBD, was undertaken.The educational landscape was expanded as a result of theconstruction of a number of new educational facilities (of whichthe Thaba Nchu College of Education and the Manpower TrainingCentre are the most prominent), as well as the upgrading andrelocation of educational facilities. The health landscape wastransformed by the establishment of a larger and more sophisticatedvariety of health facilities. The cultural landscape cameto be dominated by the Mmabana Cultural Centre in the CBD, whilethe tourist landscape emerged with the building of the NalediSun.It is thus clear that a large variety of types and scales oflandscape transformations occurred in Thaba Nchu-Selosesha as aresult of the political independence of Bophuthatswana in 1977of which the settlement, industrial, commercial, and educationallandscape transformations are the most prominent. At the sametime, new landscapes, e.g. political, administrative, industrial,commercial, educational, cultural, and tour ism emerged. There areinstances where the pre-independent physical patterns remainede.g. formal and informal settlements and formal and informalhousing.In conclusion, a process model has been proposed by which thechanging geographical landscape of Thaba Nchu-Selosesha can beexplained.

[发布机构] University of the Free State