The back and front stage of digital- urban statecraft in Cape Town, South Africa Choreographed performances and bureaucratic software systems

The inextricable connections between questions of territory, bordering, mobility (and immobility), standardisation and regulation give substance to state formation and legitimacy, shaping how the state both sees itself and is seen by its constituents and global audiences alike. While not unique to the postcolonial context, the role of infrastructure in crafting state authority, classifying citizens (and all manner of identities and bodies), structuring space and place, and projecting political powers of various sorts for local and global audiences is pronounced in the African urban context of Cape Town, South Africa, where this chapter is situated. In a first moment, the chapter analyses the outward-facing digital policy projects related to elite circulations and tech mobilities. It shows how the city and province, through various bodies and initiatives, have endeavoured to attract digital nomads and venture capital investors to the city. In a second moment, the authors focus on digital platforms of integrated urban management – the back stage of local digitisation. They analyse the city’s purchasing and subsequent reliance on the SAP system, brought during the consolidation of the metropolitan region in 2001. The chapter places these simultaneous projects against the history of metropolitan formation in the post-apartheid period, showing how digital urban statecraft develops alongside historical ruptures and reconfigurations.