According to today's prevailing opinion, recent changes in the management approach to the provision of urban public services should contribute to building social harmony in Southern African cities, where widespread and multifaceted poverty further adds to the social discord of racial discrimination. Nonetheless, present reforms have resulted in a reshaping of public infrastructure networks and supply of services which, being more client-oriented, tend to isolate not only particular segments of the urban population but geographical pockets as well. Moreover, this process serves to heighten both the social and spatial fragmentation existing in urban areas.