‘Hai, Man! . . . We Don’t Have Democracy’! The Transport Crisis and Working-Class De-Citizenship in South Africa: Khayelitsha, Cape Town

Abstract

Affordable and safe public transport underpins effective citizenship and freedom as well as work. Citizens expect the democratic state to be caring and reciprocal. Using in-depth interviews with residents and community leaders in Khayelitsha, we look at how worsening public and private transport – mainly mini-bus taxis – not only significantly extends the working day but also destroys political hopes – a process called de-citizenship. We show how mobilities are fundamentally rooted in radically bifurcated spaces of classed citizenship – a new class apartheid – in turn reflecting the structural contradictions of Cape Town and its class struggles.