Abstract

Pietermaritzburg may be considered a Sleepy Hollow but according to research by the Number Crime Index, the city is the most dangerous in South Africa followed by Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town. It also found that the country was the third most dangerous in the world, topped by Venezuela and South Sudan (‘Sleepy Hollow’ most dangerous city in SA’ - Candice Soobramoney 28 April 2016). This statement by the local newspaper, The Witness is one of many in the last two decades, and highlights a serious issue around perceptions of dysfunctional space, and marginal secure access to public space and personal security. The Witness is also a newspaper that is over 150 years old, situated with its origins in the Colonial era, and develops most of its discourse from this western tradition. This paper intends to scrutinise this problem, and questions whether the issue is the entrenched perceptions that public space in a post-transformation South Africa should be mimicking the grand squares of their progenitors in Europe, or whether, in fact, space in Africa is perceived differently: perhaps understanding the use of space by the majority of the population is the key towards sustainable planning in the country, rather than the imposition of regulations designed for a different world and different user groups.