The Lagunya Lacuna : contestations of legitimacy and agency in housing allocation in a Black Local Authority, 1983-1994

Word processed copy.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 159-175).In this thesis I draw on experiences in a particular neighbourhood within the Lagunya townships, New Crossroads, in order to examine the realities of local government housing administration at the local scale. The New Crossroads housing allocation process illustrates the insider/outsider polemic and the ways in which complex interrelationships developed between the local authorities and the community leadership structures, between the New Crossroads community and the residents of townships surrounding them, and among the residents of the New Crossroads community themselves. Such interactions speak to the ways in which both state and community actors adopted multiple and sometimes-dissimilar identities in order to access resources such as housing and to navigate the highly politicised terrain of the townships during the BLA era