Transporting the “Bus Stop Republic” – resilience and apartheid’s transport infrastructure, 1979 to present times

ABSTRACT This article examines how PUTCO buses formed part of apartheid infrastructure by transporting commuters between the Bantustan of KwaNdebele and Pretoria. It discusses the arduous conditions of this daily commute, as well as the ways in which PUTCO buses became central to mobilising against KwaNdebele’s independence in 1986. More specifically, this article demonstrates how the daily exhaustion of commuters, the poor design of these buses, their lack of safety and high fares in the 1970s and 1980s have continued into the post-apartheid present. Not only does this demonstrate the resilience of apartheid infrastructure – seen as a form of resoluteness and resistance to change – but it also highlights the resilient citizenship required from commuters in the post-apartheid period. Resilient citizenship – where responsibilised citizen-subjects in South Africa are required to be adaptable to apartheid infrastructure – has emerged through the state’s embrace of a neoliberal regime. Characterised by privatisation and reducing state expenditures, this regime has, in relation to apartheid’s infrastructure, given rise to techniques of government that shift responsibility onto individuals by imposing strategies of adaptability. Former residents of KwaNdebele, black women in particular, are thus required to be adaptable to PUTCO’s perilous routes and the poor design of the buses.