Running on the outskirts:

Outpacing the City of Pretoria and its monumental commandments

Abstract

This article considers subtexts in two trail runs, the trajectories of which highlight the city of Pretoria against the Voortrekker Monument1 and the Union Buildings,2 nationalist heritage sites that are built on kopjes. This article proposes that, while the utilisation of this milieu is deliberate and strategic, the reclamation of this city in Afrikaner nationalist terms wells up, but also loses authority in the codings of these country runs. It suggests that this failure may be related to the eulogisation of the alleged heroism of the South African Defense Force soldiers during the ‘Border Wars’(1969-1989), most of which downplay the violations perpetrated against black South Africans. The resulting porosity defines the city beyond the racial and national paradigms. Introducing perspectives that render the city permeable, this article probes continuity between heritage and the city.