Views from above: The continued discrimination of domestic workers living in the apartment blocks of Northern Johannesburg

Abstract

While Apartheid legislatively ended in 1994, the legacy of structural discrimination still defines urban realities in South African cities. The historically white ‘old money’ Northern suburbs of Johannesburg remain an enclave of privilege where race, class and gender define the social production of space. Atop the roofs of apartment buildings in the suburbs of Killarney, Illovo and Rosebank lie ‘locations in the sky’: staff accommodation designed during Apartheid for live-in domestic workers. These structures illuminate how Apartheid spatial planning continues to shape the city and its power relations: the colonial legacy of domestic work in South Africa. Using a Lefebvrian lens, this study investigates experiences of ‘locations in the sky’, and how discrimination is enforced and experienced. Through 38 semi-structured interviews and a doctrinal legal analysis of 13 body corporate rules, various forms of discrimination are revealed. Domestic workers and residents of staff accommodation encounter physical and structural discrimination in terms of sub-par living conditions, as well as discriminatory rules. This discrimination is enforced through social power. Finally, an analysis of discrimination scenarios illustrates that discrimination is both written and enforced to varying degrees based on the unique context of each building. The findings contribute a spatial analysis of domestic work in the under-researched space of staff accommodation in apartment buildings. Documenting this discrimination provides a basis upon which to identify injustices, reevaluate rules and address discrimination, which should be of concern to apartment residents, bodies corporate, civil society organisations and urban planners as well as legislators.