The state of the people: Citizens, civil society and governance in South Africa, 1994-2000

Literature › Works

Bert Klandermans; Marlene Roefs; Johan Olivier (eds); Tom Lodge (ch. 1); Hennie Kotzé (ch. 6 with) (2001). The state of the people: Citizens, civil society and governance in South Africa, 1994-2000. Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria.

Type	book
Scope	Post-1994 South African economy
Method	survey fieldwork
Period studied	1994–2000
Regions	South Africa, Gauteng, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape
Themes	transition post apartheid, politics ideology elections, resistance social movements, inequality poverty unemployment, unions strikes, demography urbanisation, education human capital, methods data sources
Citation key	klandermans2001

Argument

Using seven annual national surveys (1994-2000, c.2,200 respondents each), the editors ask whether democratic transition improved 'the state of the people'. They argue that apartheid-era inequality remains largely intact but is being restructured: education, age, gender and centre/periphery location are displacing race as determinants of wealth, and class is displacing race in grievance formation. Satisfaction, trust in government and national identity dipped to a low in 1998 and then recovered. Civil society did not demobilise; party and electoral engagement fell while civic, union and peaceful protest participation held or rose. The conclusion is cautiously optimistic, warning that unemployment (especially among the young) and persistent inequality threaten stability.

Evidence and method

Seven annual HSRC 'Social Movements in South Africa' panel/cross-sectional surveys 1994-2000 (regression, correlations, ANOVA); interviews with civic officials in six Gauteng SANCO branches; newspaper reports; Statistics South Africa, 1996 census, SAIRR and World Bank data cited in Lodge's chapter 1; HSRC and IDASA opinion polls.

Findings

• Unemployment barely changed over 1994-2000 and remained racially skewed; Black unemployment rose to a third by 2000. (p. 46)

  Nationally, the level of unemployment hovered around 25% during the seven-year period from 1994 to 2000

• Official figures cited by Lodge show a sharp rise in unemployment in the mid-1990s, with job losses in manufacturing, construction and mining and growth only in the informal sector. (p. 21)

  Official figures suggest that unemployment rose from 1 811 000 to 3 158 000 (from 15.5% to 23.3%).

• The explanatory weight of race for household income fell sharply while education became the strongest determinant. (p. 62)

• Income gaps narrowed but remained large: share of households earning over R4,000 per month by race. (p. 48)

  in 1994, 3% of the Blacks earned an income of over R4 000, as compared to 13.5% of the Coloureds, 42% of the Asians, and no less than 78% of the Whites.

• A centre-periphery divide (Gauteng/Western Cape versus other provinces) widened, notably in unemployment. (p. 56)

  In other words, in one year's time the gap grew three times wider: 12.9% instead of 4%.

• Young people, including better-educated youth, bore the brunt of unemployment and gained least from recovery. (p. 53)

  Among the younger generation the difference was much smaller than among the older generations, as can be seen in Figure 2.7 the younger one is, the less education makes a difference

• Trade union membership grew after 1994 and union participation rose, even as unions fragmented and strike days fell. (p. 21)

  trade union membership has grown—from 2 993 993 in 1992 to 3 801 388 in 1998, an increase of 31%

• Strike incidence fell sharply, with wage disputes dominating. (p. 22)

  The incidence of strikes fell sharply. In 1994, 3.9 million man-days were lost in industrial disputes and in 1998, the most strike-affected year after 1994, man-days lost totalled 2.3 million.

• Lodge reports that GEAR (1996) shifted policy from redistribution toward growth, deficit reduction, privatisation and wage restraint, and unions' hostility eroded confidence in government. (p. 39)

  GEAR's authors forecast a 6% growth rate by 2000, to be achieved through deficit reduction, trade liberalisation, government "right-sizing", privatisation and wage restraint

• Farm worker exodus after 1993 accelerated urbanisation and small-town growth. (p. 21)

  since 1993, 500 000 farm workers left commercial farms to seek work elsewhere, taking with them 5 million dependents.

• Grievances shifted from race toward class; people were aggrieved by what they had rather than who they were. (p. 86)

  being satisfied or dissatisfied with your personal share or that of your group in the distribution of wealth in South Africa seems to have been a matter of what you had rather than of who you were

• Civil society did not demobilise: overall participation in grassroots organisations fell only slightly, while party membership halved and union membership rose. (p. 119)

  in 2000 only 2% less South Africans participated in some civil society organisation than in 1994 (56% compared to 58%).