Urban Segregation in Post-apartheid South Africa

Abstract

An analysis of the results of the 1996 census reveals a general decline in urban racial segregation levels in South Africa since the end of legal apartheid in 1991. However, the trends are not uniform with Whites remaining both more segregated and less open to change than the other groups. Africans have become more integrated, but the majority are constrained in their choice of residential options by the general levels of poverty. Asian and Coloured people have witnessed the greatest changes, with significant declines in segregation levels in the majority of cities as they begin to return to the areas from which they were forcibly removed in the previous 40 years. However, segregation levels remain exceptionally high and rapid integration may require government intervention.