Abstract
Under apartheid, black African households could not own land or homes in most major urban centres in South Africa. This limited residential mobility and locked many households into state rental accommodation in townships. Homeownership for all South Africans was restored in the mid-1980 s and the Group Areas Act was repealed in 1991. Democracy opened up economic opportunities previously unavailable to black people. This paper investigates the effect on black middle-class South African households’ residential mobility and housing careers. A retrospective cross-sectional survey of 244 such homeowners in the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality determined their last five housing states. Changes in housing state indicated a steady improvement in housing quality, but tenure changes were not necessarily unidirectional—some had reverted to rental. More than 85% of the study participants had used mortgages to finance their housing career. Very few had financed their housing using own savings, an inheritance, or sale of a previous house, and not many had used the government subsidy. We found that housing careers are bridging the historical spatial racial divide in this municipality.
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Notes
The Population Registration Act of 1950 classified South Africans in terms of race (native—today referred to as black, coloured, and white; people of Indian descent were later added as a separate group). The Group Areas Act made provision for suburbs based on this racial classification (Lemon 1991). Both Acts were repealed in 1991. We recognize that more than two decades into democracy a substantial portion of households cannot be defined by these historical racial categories. We use the term “black” in this paper as used in the historical context.
We acknowledge the difficulty of defining “middle class”. Democratic freedom in South Africa has brought economic and social freedom to black households, giving rise to a growing black middle class. We acknowledge that a definition of “middle class” should go beyond income to include access to good education and housing. Nevertheless, for convenience we use “middle-class” and “middle-income” synonymously in this paper.
Mangaung is the metropolitan municipality governing Bloemfontein and surrounding towns in the Free State province of South Africa.
Gap housing is typically defined as household earning between R3500 and R15,000 per month. But, this definition is problematic. In reality, household incomes for gap housing extend far beyond the R15,000 threshold.
Influx control legislation aimed to reverse black urbanization. It required blacks to carry a pass book indicating permission to be in a particular place in “white South Africa”. The restoration of black homeownership resulted from the Abolition of Influx Control Act 68 of 1986 and the Abolition of Racially Based Land Measures Act of 1991).
Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality includes the urban areas of Bloemfontein, Botshabelo and Thaba Nchu.
The old Mangaung township was the former black suburb of Bloemfontein as proclaimed by the Group Areas Act.
The name “Bloemfontein” refers to both the former white and black suburbs of the city. Where relevant we refer to the former white suburbs of Bloemfontein, meaning those reserved for whites under apartheid.
The exchange rate on 31 August 2015 was 13.27 ZAR to 1 USD.
The Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) was a socio-economic policy implemented by the African National Congress (ANC) government of Nelson Mandela in 1994.
Usually housing constructed before 1950.
Houses constructed by the apartheid state between 1950 and 1970.
Houses constructed since the reintroduction of homeownership in 1985 and usually by means of mortgage finance.
Houses on unproclaimed land and usually made of corrugated iron.
Houses delivered under the State Subsidy Programme for low-income households since the early 1990 s (excluding FLISP houses).
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Marais, L., Hoekstra, J., Napier, M. et al. The housing careers of black middle-class residents in a South African metropolitan area. J Hous and the Built Environ 33, 843–860 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-018-9593-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-018-9593-6