The role of geoarchaeology in the interpretation of fragmented buildings and occupation surfaces: The case of coastal settlements in northeast Scotland

Around the world, poorly preserved buildings and occupation deposits often represent the primary evidence for archaeological structures and settlements. Integrated geoarchaeological methods, such as soil chemistry and micromorphology, can be used to maximise the information obtained from such deposits regarding site preservation and the use of space. However, archaeologists are often reluctant to apply these methods if they suspect that preservation is poor or stratigraphy is not visible in the field. To assess the role that geoarchaeology can play in the interpretation of fragmented and poorly preserved structures, this paper presents the results of two case studies in which multiple geoarchaeological methods (microrefuse analysis, pH, electrical conductivity, magnetic susceptibility, loss-on-ignition, portable XRF and micromorphology) were applied to poorly preserved occupation deposits and fragmented buildings in early medieval coastal settlements in northeast Scotland. Micromorphology proved to be fundamental for recognising and understanding the composition of occupation deposits that had formerly been floor surfaces. It also aided interpretations for the use of space and maintenance practices and improved an understanding of the post-depositional processes that had affected stratigraphic visibility at the macroscale. When subjected to principal component analysis, the geochemical, magnetic and microrefuse data were able to provide new details about activity areas, and successfully identified and filtered out the effects of post-medieval contamination. Most significantly, the integrated approach demonstrates that fragmented buildings and poorly preserved occupation surfaces can retain surviving characteristics of the use of space, even if the floor surfaces were not preserved well enough to be clearly defined in the field or in thin section.     

Site formation processes at Donggutuo: a major Early Pleistocene site in the Nihewan Basin,North China

Understanding site formation processes is crucial for interpreting archaeological context patterns and hominin behaviour as these affect the preserved condition of a site and the integrity of archaeological remains. The fluvio‐lacustrine sequences in the Nihewan Basin of North China are rich sources of early Pleistocene archaeological sites, which offer an important opportunity to investigate human evolution and adapted behaviours in East Asia. Although many Palaeolithic sites have been reported from the Nihewan Basin, North China, few of them focus on site formation processes before interpreting the hominin behaviour patterns. Here, we present a site formation study of four archaeological layers (Layers 6D, 6C, 6B and 6A) in Trench 1 from the Donggutuo (namely DGT‐T1) site in the Nihewan Basin with an age of 1.1 Ma. Through the study of sedimentary contexts, spatial distributions of artefacts and fossils, intra‐assemblage category ratios, debitage size distributions, lithic abrasion, artifact orientation and planar dip, our results show that all the layers had been disturbed by low‐energy sheet wash across the lake shore setting, but to differing extents. The post‐depositional disturbance caused by water decreased from the lower to the upper layers, from Layer 6D to Layer 6A. This indicates that the archaeological remains in DGT‐T1 have not been subject to significant natural modifications and are thus suitable for studying early hominin behaviour in North China. Copyright © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Archaean lode gold mineralisation in banded iron formation at the Kalahari Goldridge deposit, Kraaipan Greenstone Belt, South Africa

The Kalahari Goldridge Mine is located within the Archaean Kraaipan Greenstone Belt, about 60 km southwest of Mafikeng in the North West Province, South Africa. The ore body thickness varies from 15 to 45 m along a strike length of about 1.5 km within approximately N–S striking banded iron formation (BIF). The stratabound ore body is hosted primarily by BIF, which consists of alternating chert and magnetite–chlorite–stilpnomelane–sulphide–carbonate bands of millimetre- to centimetre scale. A footwall of sericite–carbonate–chlorite schist underlain by mafic amphibolite occurs to the west and carbonaceous metapelites in the hanging wall to the east. Overlying the hanging wall, carbonaceous metapelites, units of coarse-grained metagreywackes fining upwards, become increasingly conglomeratic up the stratigraphy. Small-scale isoclinal folds, brecciation, extension fractures and boudinage of cherty BIF units reflect brittle-ductile deformation. Fold axial planes have foliation, with subvertical plunges parallel to prominent rodding and mineral lineation in the footwall rocks. Gold mineralisation is associated with two generations of quartz–carbonate veins, dipping approximately 20° to 40° W. The first generation consists of ladder-vein sets (group IIA) preferentially developed in centimetre-scale Fe-rich mesobands, whereas the second generation consists of large quartz–carbonate veins (group IIB), which locally crosscut the entire ore body and extend into the footwall and hanging wall. The ore body is controlled by mesoscale isoclinal folds approximately 67° E, orthogonal to the plane of mineralised, gently dipping veins, defining the principal stretching direction and development of fluid-focussing conduits. The intersections of the mineralised veins and foliation planes of the host rock plunges approximately 08° to the north. Pervasive hydrothermal alteration is characterised by chloritisation, carbonatisation, sulphidation and K-metasomatism. Gold is closely associated with sulphides, mainly pyrite and pyrrhotite, and to a lesser extent, with bismuth tellurides and carbonate minerals. Mass balance transfer calculations indicate that hydrothermal alteration of BIF involved enrichment of Au, Ag, Bi, Te, S and CO₂ (LOI), MgO, Ba, K and Rb, but significant depletion of SiO₂ and, to a lesser extent, Fe₂O₃. Extensive replacement of magnetite and chlorite in BIF and other pelitic sedimentary rocks by sulphide and carbonate minerals, both on mesoscopic and microscopic scales, is evidence of interaction of CO₂- and H₂S-bearing fluids with the Fe-rich host rocks. The fineness of gold grains ranges from 823 to 921, similar to that of other epigenetic Archaean BIF-hosted gold deposits, worldwide.     

Iodine and bromine contents in the Palaeoproterozoic Hotazel iron formation, Transvaal Supergroup, South Africa: A reconnaissance study

A reconnaissance bulk geochemical study was carried out on ten samples from the Palaeoproterozoic Hotazel iron formation, South Africa, with emphasis on iodine and bromine abundances. Very low-absolute contents recorded for both halogens, i.e. 0.08–0.26 μg/g for I and 0.35–1.23 μg/g for Br, indicate that they should largely have been lost during burial diagenesis. Bulk I/Br ratios (0.08–0.50), however, show marginal variation across the selected sample set and broadly resemble those that typify recent marine sediments containing organic matter. The possibility emerges that both elements are organic matter-sourced and may thus provide a potential proxy for the role of biological processes during deposition and diagenesis of Precambrian iron formations.     

Hybridity emergent: Geo-history, learning, and land restitution in South Africa

Market-Led Agrarian Reform (MLAR), which is advocated by the World Bank and is being implemented in various contexts around the world, is a more neo-liberal approach to land reform than that we have seen implemented in the past. MLAR principles have underpinned South Africa’s land reform programme, being based on the ‘willing-seller, willing-buyer’ principle, which guarantees market-related prices to sellers. Evidence presented in this paper, however, raises serious questions about the extent to which the South African government has held on to MLAR principles. Specifically, the paper argues that South Africa’s peculiar geo-historical context has in some instances led the government to fuse market-led approaches with more authoritarian interventions that dictate to land reform beneficiaries how the land will be used. A case in point is the government’s approach to the restitution of land rights to communities dispossessed from the Levubu area of Limpopo province. As the paper illustrates, the government has imposed on the intended beneficiaries a so-called ‘strategic partnership’ between them and agribusinesses. Although the government touts the approach as a way to protect the commercial viability of the land and to transfer skills from white farmers to the beneficiaries, the terms of the Levubu solution may turn out to be less than favourable for the beneficiaries.     

Rethinking the ‘domus’ in domestic violence: homelessness, space and domestic violence in South Africa

An examination of domestic violence and where it takes place provides significant insight into debates about the meaning of home. It is argued here that discussions of domestic violence could make more use of feminist geographers’ and development theorists’ analyses of the home. Examining the experiences of homeless and insecurely housed women in Durban, the paper aims to explore ideas of ‘home’ implicit in much research on domestic violence and argues that these ideas require further examination. The paper focuses on three assumptions about the home (in experiences of domestic violence); namely, the home as a formal material space, the home as private, and the domicile as home. In conclusion the paper argues for a more nuanced understanding of home.     

Management and sediment dynamics of the St. Lucia Estuary mouth,Zululand, South Africa

St. Lucia Estuary is on the subtropical, predominantly microtidal Zululand coast of South Africa. Lake St. Lucia's surface area fluctuates between 420 and 215 km² and has a mean depth of less than 1 m. The 21-km-long narrows connects Lake St. Lucia with the Indian Ocean. Tidal effects penetrate 14 km up the narrows. The St. Lucia system has changed substantially since the 1930s due to bad farming techniques within its catchment. Large amounts of sediment were deposited in the estuary mouth, resulting in relocation of the Mfolozi River mouth to the south at Mapelane. The St. Lucia catchment was subjected to two devastating floods in the last ten years: Cyclone Domoina during February 1984 and the September 1987 cutoff low flood. After floods scoured out the estuary, marine sand advanced up the estuary at a rate of 1200 m/y as a series of flood-tidal deltas. Over 600,000 m³ of sediment accumulated in the St. Lucia Estuary mouth from February 1988 to November 1989. Of this amount, 466,000 m³ of sediment was removed by dredging, although this has not stopped the shoaling. During high rainfall years, the estuary mouth is able to maintain an open outlet to the sea, but as lake levels drop, shoaling causes the mouth to constrict and eventually close. Without the dredging program the mouth would ultimately close during low rainfall years, causing management problems.     

Late Quaternary glaciation in Southern Africa: moraine ridges and glacial deposits at Mount Enterprise in the Drakensberg of the Eastern Cape Province,South Africa

Late Quaternary moraines and diamictons containing striated clasts are described from near Elliot in the Drakensberg of South Africa. An equilibrium line altitude (ELA) of 2109 m is suggested for the palaeoglacier associated with the innermost moraine. This glacier was fed by a very extensive snowblow area and the ELA may reflect the temperature–precipitation–wind ELA rather than the temperature–precipitation ELA and be considerably below the ‘regional’ ELA. Mean annual air temperatures when glaciation occurred were probably at least 10.0°C below those of the present. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Nature of ore-forming fluid and formation conditions of BIF-hosted gold mineralization in the Archean Amalia Greenstone Belt,South Africa: Constraints from fluid inclusion and stable isotope studies

Orogenic gold mineralization in the Amalia greenstone belt is hosted by oxide facies banded iron-formation (BIF). Hydrothermal alteration of the BIF layers is characterized by chloritization, carbonatization, hematization and pyritization, and quartz-carbonate veins that cut across the layers. The alteration mineral assemblages consist of ankerite-ferroan dolomite minerals, siderite, chlorite, hematite, pyrite and subordinate amounts of arsenopyrite and chalcopyrite. Information on the physico-chemical properties of the ore-forming fluids and ambient conditions that promoted gold mineralization at Amalia were deduced from sulfur, oxygen and carbon isotopic ratios, and fluid inclusions from quartz-carbonate samples associated with the gold mineralization.Microthermometric and laser Raman analyses indicated that the ore-forming fluid was composed of low salinity H₂O-CO₂ composition (~3 wt% NaCl equiv.). The combination of microthermometric data and arsenopyrite-pyrite geothermometry suggest that quartz-carbonate vein formation, gold mineralization and associated alteration of the proximal BIF wall rock occurred at temperature-pressure conditions of 300 ± 30 °C and ∼2 kbar. Thermodynamic calculations at 300 °C suggest an increase in fO₂ (10⁻³²–10⁻³⁰ bars) and corresponding decrease in total sulfur concentration (0.002–0.001 m) that overlapped the pyrite-hematite-magnetite boundary during gold mineralization. Although hematite in the alteration assemblage indicate oxidizing conditions at the deposit site, the calculated low fO₂ values are consistent with previously determined high Fe/Fe + Mg ratios (>0.7) in associated chlorite, absence of sulfates and restricted positive δ³⁴S values in associated pyrite. Based on the fluid composition, metal association and physico-chemical conditions reported in the current study, it is confirmed that gold in the Amalia fluid was transported as reduced bisulfide complexes (e.g., Au(HS)₂⁻). At Amalia, gold deposition was most likely a combined effect of increase in fO₂ corresponding to the magnetite-hematite buffer, and reduction in total sulfur contents due to sulfide precipitation during progressive fluid-rock interaction.The epigenetic features coupled with the isotopic compositions of the ore-forming fluid (δ³⁴S_ΣS = +1.8 to +2.3‰, δ¹⁸O_H2O = +6.6 to +7.9‰, and δ¹³C_ΣC = −6.0 to −7.7‰ at 300–330 °C) are consistent with an externally deep-sourced fluid of igneous signature or/and prograde metamorphism of mantle-derived rocks.     

Seismic Hazard and Risk Assessment for Tulbagh,South Africa: Part II – Assessment of Seismic Risk

This is the second part of our study on the assessment of seismic hazard and seismic risk for Tulbagh, the settlement, located about 90 km N-E from Cape Town, where the strongest and most damaging earthquake known in the existing earthquake history of South Africa took place. This part of our study, which can be read independently from Part I, concentrates on the probabilistic seismic risk analysis (PSRA) forTulbagh. The work begins with an introduction and a historical perspective on the estimation of seismic damage to buildings. The methodology for the estimation of expected damage from a probabilistic point of view is then presented. The work closes with an application of the described methodology to a site in the vicinity of Tulbagh.     

Place and the implications of ‘the local’ for sustainability: an investigation of the Ugu District Municipality in South Africa

Sustainable development is accepted worldwide as a programme for the improvement of human-environment relations. It has been argued that the local level is the optimum level at which to implement sustainability. However, variability of local characteristics problematises this process as engagements with the principles and practices of sustainable development in unique places are likely to result in varying interpretations of the internationally accepted discourses of sustainable development. In order to assess local level interpretations of sustainability [Sharp, L., 1999. Local policy for the global environment: in search of a new perspective. Environmental Politics 8 (4), 137-159] calls for a more contextual analysis of the relationship between sustainability and the local level.This paper evaluates the interpretations of sustainability that were evident in a capacity building workshop in the Ugu District Municipality on the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa through consideration of the context in which they emerged. The notion of place as a construction of social and spatial interrelations, the social relations of power within places and the environmental discourses through which debates over sustainability often occur have been used in this study to consider how unequal power relations and the process of political and social transition taking place within the Ugu District Municipality drive the social construction of sustainability agendas. Consequently, the case study draws attention to the need to consider the ways in which local contexts set the terms for interpretations of sustainability as these conceptualizations can direct actions for sustainability and may interrelate to assist or hinder the implementation of local level sustainability plans.     

Poverty, vulnerability and the impact of flooding in the Limpopo Province, South Africa

The article evaluates household vulnerability after the 2000 flood in two poor communities of the Limpopo Province, South Africa. The study analyses the forms of vulnerability which disasters such as floods present. Using data gathered from a survey of households, the study presents the impacts, coping and adapting strategies of households after the 2000 flood. The article argues that beyond the concern over socio-economic circumstances as the major determinant of household vulnerability, the management of the disaster can serve to perpetuate vulnerability.     

南非维特沃特斯兰德盆地绍斯迪普金矿床地质特征、成矿模式和找矿模型

对南非兰德砾岩型金矿床的研究成果进行总结,概括了绍斯迪普金矿床的区域地质背景、岩石地层划分,较为系统地分析了矿床的地质特征和矿床成因。 得出如下结论：①金的主要来源可能与太古宙含金花岗绿岩带有密切关系;②金矿体主要受太古宙文特斯多普砾岩地层和中兰德群中的Turffontein亚群埃尔斯伯格组砾岩地层控制;③金矿床可能经历了早期沉积成岩成矿阶段—后期改造富集多个（Klipriviersberg火山活动作用时期和与2050Ma布什维尔德杂岩体有关的变质作用高峰时期）阶段,为复合成因的层控改造型矿床。研究结果对该类矿床的深入研究和走出去的中国企业有重要的参考价值。     

南非维特沃特斯兰德盆地绍斯迪普金矿床地质特征、成矿模式和找矿模型

对南非兰德砾岩型金矿床的研究成果进行总结,概括了绍斯迪普金矿床的区域地质背景、岩石地层划分,较为系统地分析了矿床的地质特征和矿床成因。得出如下结论:1金的主要来源可能与太古宙含金花岗绿岩带有密切关系;2金矿体主要受太古宙文特斯多普砾岩地层和中兰德群中的Turffontein亚群埃尔斯伯格组砾岩地层控制;3金矿床可能经历了早期沉积成岩成矿阶段—后期改造富集多个(Klipriviersberg火山活动作用时期和与2050Ma布什维尔德杂岩体有关的变质作用高峰时期)阶段,为复合成因的层控改造型矿床。研究结果对该类矿床的深入研究和走出去的中国企业有重要的参考价值。     

Power and the hierarchy of knowledge: A review of a decade of the World Bank’s relationship with South Africa

This article presents a case study of the World Bank’s relationship with South Africa to argue that the Bank uses its knowledge brokering role as a device to facilitate the development of a lending relationship with countries that may initially be reluctant to enter into this kind of engagement. This article reviews the World Bank’s 10-year effort to develop a lending relationship with South Africa. The Bank inserted itself into the country in the early 1990s at the outset of its democratic transformation. Throughout the decade, South Africa acceded to the Bank’s policy interventions through technical assistance rather than through a concerted lending programme. In doing so, South Africa internalized the Bank’s market-driven political economy framework underlying its technical assistance programme. The country’s application of the Bank’s knowledge has had questionable outcomes for its development agenda. While the Bank’s ‘expert’ interventions may have offered valuable technical insights, it neglected the politics of distribution that are embedded in a more localized knowledge formation process. The result has led to the instrumentalization of local governance and undermined the engagement of civil society actors in the construction of a democratic state at the local level.     

The New Consort Gold Mine,Barberton greenstone belt,South Africa: orogenic gold mineralization in a condensed metamorphic profile

The New Consort Gold Mine in the Palaeo- to Mesoarchaean Barberton greenstone belt, South Africa is one of the oldest recognized orogenic gold deposits on Earth. The gold mineralization is hosted by discrete mylonitic units that occur at, or close to, the contact between the mafic and ultramafic volcanic rocks of the c. 3,280 Ma Onverwacht Group and the mainly metasedimentary rocks of the overlying c. 3,260–3,230 Ma Fig Tree Group. This contact, locally referred to as the Consort Bar, formed during ductile D₁ imbrication of the metavolcanosedimentary sequence and predates the main stage of the gold mineralization. The imbricate stack is situated in the immediate hanging wall of the basal granitoid–greenstone contact along the northern margin of the greenstone belt. It is characterized by a condensed metamorphic profile in which the metamorphic grade increases from upper greenschist facies conditions (510–530°C, 4 kbar) in rocks of the Fig Tree Group to upper amphibolite facies grades (600–700°C, 6–8 kbar) in the basal Onverwacht Group. Detailed structural and petrological investigations indicate that the Consort Bar represents a major structural break, which is largely responsible for the telescoping of metamorphic isograds within the structural sequence. Two stages of mineralization can be distinguished. Loellingite, pyrrhotite, and a calc–silicate alteration assemblage characterize an early high-T mineralization event, which is restricted to upper amphibolite facies rocks of the Onverwacht Group. This early mineralization may correlate with the local D₁ deformation. The second and main stage of gold mineralization was associated with renewed ductile shearing during D₂. The D₂ deformation resulted in the reactivation of earlier structures, and the formation of a NNW trending, steeply dipping shear zone system, the Shires Shear Zone, which separates two regional SE plunging D₁ synclines. The mineralized shear zones are intruded by abundant syn-kinematic pegmatite dykes that have previously been dated at c. 3040 Ma. Petrological and geothermobarometric data on ore and alteration assemblages indicate that the main stage of gold mineralization, which affected a crustal profile of ca. 1.5 km, was characterized by increasing temperatures (c. 520 to 600°C) with increasing structural depth. Sulfide assemblages in the ore bodies change progressively with metamorphic grade, ranging from arsenopyrite + pyrite + pyrrhotite in the structurally highest to arsenopyrite + pyrrhotite + chalcopyrite + loellingite in the structurally deepest part of the mine. The main stage of gold mineralization was broadly syn-peak metamorphic with respect to the Fig Tree Group, but postdates the peak of metamorphism in upper amphibolite facies rocks of the structurally underlying Onverwacht Group. This indicates that the mineralization coincided with the juxtaposition of the two units. As the footwall rocks were already on their retrograde path, metamorphic devolatilisation reactions within the greenstone sequence can be ruled out as the source of the mineralizing fluids.     

南非Postmasburg地区锰矿床地质特征及成因分析

以南非Postmasburg地区Bishop、Paling两个矿区为研究载体,将研究区的地层划分为6个岩性单元,自下而上分别为白云岩单元、铁锰矿体单元、铁质细砂岩/铁质砾岩单元、泥质粉砂岩单元、石英岩/Gamagara页岩单元和Paling页岩单元。识别出了沉积受变质型、堆积型和锰质软泥或锰土型三类矿床,并讨论了其成因模型。根据地层序列特征,将研究区的发育与演化过程划分为4个阶段。分析表明:锰质软泥或锰土是富锰白云岩遭受溶蚀后的残余物。沉积序列各单元为渐变关系,而与白云岩单元之间为不整合接触关系。三种矿床类型都与白云岩的岩溶系统有关,锰质软泥或锰土中的锰来源于富锰白云岩,另外两种则可能来源于安山岩。两次岩溶系统之后分别形成了沉积受变质型矿床和堆积型矿床。成矿后期矿体受到Marthaspoort石英岩的保护而保存下来。     

Crossing the racial divide: a spatial-ecological perspective of offenders in the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality, South Africa

Post-apartheid South Africa has been plagued by an increase in crime and a concomitant increase in the number of incarcerated offenders. Researchers have postulated many proximate causes for the insidious increase in crime, including the vast socio-economic inequalities existing in the country, a remnant of apartheid-era policies and post-apartheid migrations. This article focuses on the neglected field of the environmental criminology of offenders. Following a spatial-ecological approach the relationship between various socio-economic variables and offender rates in the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality in South Africa is modelled. The GIS-based methodological procedure includes a crime offender index, correlational analysis and principal components analysis and produced five factors: social status and income, family characteristics, unskilled earner, residential mobility and ageing population. These five factors, accounted for almost 75% of the variance in the offender index. The findings of our research reject race as a determinant of crime, and rather highlight existing and emerging socio-economic inequalities in the globally connected post-industrial city in regions of political instability and economic uncertainty and its relationship with crime and crime prevention.     

The Paleoproterozoic carbonate-hosted Pering Zn–Pb deposit, South Africa: I. Styles of brecciation and mineralization

The Pering deposit on the Ghaap Plateau, Northwestern Province, South Africa, was the largest of several Zn–Pb occurrences hosted by Neoarchean platform dolostones of the Transvaal Supergroup. With a Paleoproterozoic mineralization age, these occurrences are widely regarded as the oldest representatives of Mississippi Valley-type Pb–Zn deposits. Hosting an initial resource of 18 Mt at an average grade of 3.6 wt% Zn and 0.6 wt% Pb, the Pering deposit was mined from 1984 until its final closure at the end of November 2002. In this study, available geological and grade distribution maps were evaluated and complemented by the examination of mining-related outcrops, drill core, and a large set of ore and host rock samples. Four different styles of brecciation can be distinguished at the Pering deposit: (1) pyritic rock matrix breccia; (2) chemical wear breccia; (3) mosaic breccia; and (4) crackle breccia. Geological and mineral paragenetic observations on these different breccia types suggest that the formation of the Pering deposit commenced with an initial stage of hydrothermal karstification. Large volumes of pyritic rock matrix breccia formed by wall rock collapsing into the open space attributed to carbonate dissolution. This stage of hydrothermal karstification acted as ground preparation for the subsequent mineralization event. By the upward advance of the hydrothermal karstification process, fluid reservoirs in the previously undisturbed dolostone host rock succession were tapped, ultimately leading to fluid mixing. Hydrothermal sulphides are the most abundant where fluid mixing was most effective, i.e. along the outer and upper margins of the breccia bodies, and in stratabound zones along permeable host rock units. Chemical wear brecciation and formation of large volumes of fine-grained replacive sphalerite mineralization mark the early stage of hydrothermal Zn–Pb mineralization associated with this fluid mixing. The fine-grained stage of sulphide mineralization was succeeded by very coarse-grained open-space-infill mineralization. The latter is very uniform across the entire deposit and typically cements mosaic and crackle breccia, but also fills remaining open space within chemical wear brecciated portions of the deposit.     

Dislocating modernity: Identity, space and representations of street trade in Durban, South Africa

South Africa’s cities have experienced dramatic changes over the past decade. Cities are now home to a multiracial population, and have been transformed by new forms of economic and social interaction. For some, these changes have become a significant source of fear and anxiety. In this paper, we examine reactions to urban spatial change in the city of Durban, as expressed in local newspapers and interviews with suburban residents. We describe how the discourses of urban change in Durban have centred on the increased presence of street traders within the city’s public spaces, and the various ways in which the activity of street trade has disrupted long-established modernist norms governing the occupation and use of the urban space. Specifically, we offer a detailed reading of three prominent narratives within the discussion of street traders in Durban--chaos, congestion and pollution. We argue that street traders have come to embody a wide range of more deeply seated cultural anxieties, which have been brought to the fore in the context of South Africa’s transition. These anxieties arise from the ways in which modern understandings of order, agency and subjectivity have been called into question by material changes in the city, and have implications for the nature of citizenship and civic engagement in post-apartheid South Africa.