In their presence and continued use as seat of government, the Union Buildings in Pretoria reveal the persistence of the past in a prime space of power and official commemoration in South Africa. The paper focuses on the retention of these segregation-era buildings as the "top" site of government in the context of Tshwane, or Pretoria, in the democratic era from 1994. The paper traces events and actions through several periods since the Buildings were conceived in 1909, to and beyond the inauguration of President Mandela at the site. Some alternative views on continued use of the buildings are explored. The argument of the paper is that urban collective memory in which monuments such as the Union Buildings stand, is constantly remade, and the meanings ascribed to the images evoked by such an edifice shift into sometimes radically different directions from those held in earlier periods.

ResumoAo mesmo tempo que simpático ao projeto de uma teoria urbana do Sul global e suas pretensões, este artigo é cético sobre a utilidade de uma "teoria urbana desde o Sul". O que precisamos, ou não temos ainda, é algo que não pode ser atingido somente desde o Sul, já que o mundo não está dividido de forma tão simples. O artigo rejeita a noção de que as teorias do "Norte" não possam ser úteis no Sul. Sugere que, ao invés disso, as teorias viajam e, ao fazer isso, são enriquecidas em lugares, regiões, redes e em conversações. Trabalhando entre Paris, Johanesburgo e São Paulo, o artigo sugere uma formulação relacional levando em conta os terrenos comuns entre o Norte e o Sul.

AbstractWhile sympathetic to a project of global southern urban theory and its intent, this article is sceptical of the utility of "urban theory from the south". What we need, or lack, is not solely to be addressed by development of a theory from and of the south, for the world is not so simply divided. The article rejects the notion, for instance, that "northern" urban theories are not useful in the south. It suggests instead that theories travel, and in doing so, are richly populated in place, region, networks, and in conversation. Working between Paris, Johannesburg and São Paulo, the article calls for thinking in relation, in pathways across conventional terrain of north and south.