On poor whites in post-appartheid cities: The case of Bloemfontein

Abstract

The emergence of poverty in post-apartheid South Africa has recently drawn increased attention from a number of quarters. For example, in research released by the University of South Africa's Bureau for Market Research, it was estimated that at least 400 000 whites---or about ten percent of the population-currently live below the poverty line, as compared to none in 1990 (SABC, 2004). Whilst these pronouncements made for some rather sensational newspaper headlines, the true dimensions of this phenomenon remain mostly unexplored 2. In large part, this state of affairs points to some deficiencies in contemporary South African scholarship, in which the development of research programmes designed to focus on white lives has dwindled (Visser, 2003).