White attitudes towards the desegregation of public amenities in Randburg: A case study

Abstract

The issue of whether or not public amenities should be officially desegregated is currently being debated extensively in South Africa. The present article represents an empirical case study of an urban White community’s views on this issue, with Randburg, a satellite city of Johannesburg, selected as locus of research. The case study took the form of a sample survey of adult White residents’ expectations as to how they would react to the desegregation of 13 public amenities normally administered or operated by local government authorities. The survey, involving a stratified random sample of 743 residents, was conducted in January – February 1983. The main objective of the survey was to probe the residents’ views on the anticipated impact of desegregation on local race relations, the differential risks of desegregation in respect of specific public amenities, the extent to which the desegregation of public amenities would affect their frequency of usage, and the kinds of controls that would be required to prevent desegregation from leading to lower standards of efficiency and hygiene. The survey showed that the variation in the respondents’ views on the prospect of desegregated public amenities correlates positively with the degree of social sensitivity associated with each individual amenity. White resistance to desegregation escalates progressively as the amenity concerned leads to increased personal intimacy and social behaviour associated with primary group relationships. The Afrikaans-English language differential was identified as the predictor variable that contributed most to the variation in the sample’s responses. S. Afr. J. Sociol. 1985, 16(2): 49–58