Rough Guide to Marconi Beam

Rough Guide to Marconi Beam

This week we were put into groups to cover slum case studies in preparation for Mumbai this saturday. We were given Cape Town's Marconi Beam to document in a tour guide format of exploration.

What makes it stand out against slums from other countries is its beginning during the apartheid era, and notably its growth under the weakness of the post-apartheid government. With so-called 'Coloured' and 'Black' communities relocated en masse in the apartheid era, social enequality, crime, unemployment breed under areas with little or no services. The post-apartheid government's policies regarding solving the squatter problem and social inequality in South Africa are contradictory and promote municipal weakness.

The slum is exceptional because of it's proximity to an upper class South African white suburb and an ever encroaching economic power in the form of an industrial estate. The future is not secure for the inhabitants of Marconi Beam, and social inequality seems permanent despite government's hopes. With economic prosperity and an influx of capitol (in the form of the FIFA World Cup 2010), the context is changing. In this regard it is comparable to Dharavi.

Click on the link above to uncover Marconi Beam...