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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

This research project seeks to answer the following research question: To what extent is

there racial integration in Johannesburg’s middle class suburbs? It is a case study of

people residing in Northriding Manor, Northriding. Northriding has been identified to

provide answers to this research question because Northriding is a unique community. I

reside in Northriding and it provides a culturally diversified environment that is suitable

for this research taking into consideration the fact that all the participants involved in this

research reside in this same housing complex. The introductory part of this report will be

very broad and will contain both the rationale behind this research as well as the aims. I

will give some geographical information and some features of Northriding in which

Northriding Manor is built in before reflecting on the historical overview of South Africa

to show why racial differences still exist in South Africa. I will also mention briefly the

legislation on residency in South Africa simultaneously with the historical overview.

Articles relating to current debate on the topic of racial integration and suggestions on

how integration can be achieved will be discussed in details in literature review in the

next chapter, but not without mentioning the key ones in this chapter.

This project will be rooted in Emile Durkheim’s idea of social facts with regard to

solidarity and social cohesion and therefore it will give the entire project a sociological

meaning and serve as a back up for the rationale (Johnson, 1986). Similarly, Rule (1989)

talks about the make up of suburbs with different racial groups and how people continue

to live separately within their own groups despite the existence of other groups. This

explains why racial differences still exist in Northriding even though the different

communities are fairly represented in this area. Sigmund Freud’s (1961) drive theory

explains why some people allow social facts such as race, which they learnt to be in

existence, to control some of their behaviour.

The geographical information and some features of Northriding include the fact that it

was once a dowdy and mainly Afrikaner suburb of Johannesburg but is now a

fashionably cosmopolitan village. Northriding is a middle class suburb in Johannesburg,

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South Africa and enjoys boundaries with Fourways, Olivedale, Northgate and Honeydew.

The 11 South African official languages are spoken in this suburb and there are people

from all walks of life in the area. The housing complex, Northriding Manor has 44 units

with tenants and house owners of different races occupying various units. This study has

provided some insight into the level of integration of different communities in

Northriding drawn from the findings in Northriding Manor. The final report has been

generalised because a greater knowledge of racial integration in this housing complex

acquired from the study.

The middle class from different racial groups in the same locality as Northriding are

hypothesised to share the same specific residency, characteristics and behaviours and I

believe that their commonalities have provided answers to my inquest. In recent times in

South Africa; middle class is not only found among the white ethnic group but has

become multiracial. The notion of middle class in this context is defined as middle

income earners and entrepreneurs in South African society (Seekings and Nattrass, 2006).

They include skilled professionals such as Doctors and entrepreneurs of big businesses. It

is then safe to say that this set of people are comfortable enough to fend for themselves

and can afford to live in this particular suburb irrespective of the historic past.

South Africa has a history of racism, segregation and class segregation. It is important to

note that the racial dichotomy in South Africa was exacerbated by the apartheid

government who made use of divide and rule system. Similarly, the strategy of Bantustan

government was conspired that South Africa consisted of different ethnic groups and that

peaceful co-existence can only be possible by enabling each group to develop on its own

way and in its own location. However, 87% of South Africa was allocated by colonial

and apartheid governments to the whites and the other racial groups were not allowed to

go to those whites’ acclaimed areas without government permission (Biko, 1978). This

barrier created financial and educational privileges for the whites over other racial groups

leading to inequality in education, income and housing in South Africa, which has

created decades of social discontent in the society. The apartheid era urban face and

skewed pattern of house ownership has left South Africa with a 2, 4 million unit housing

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backlog, which has hampered economic growth and job creation because the existing

houses are not enough and people especially from the African community are forced to

live in squatter houses and camps (Terreblanche, 2005). The housing problem has also

been exacerbated by increasing urbanisation with 60% of South Africans living in urban

areas. This is particularly problematic in the country which has highest population per

square kilometres of all provinces. The education, financial and housing inequality has

increased the racial differences in the society and this study intended to verify how big or

small the differences are in this area.

In view of the above, the present government has also taken it up as a point of duty to

change the country’s apartheid era urban face and skewed pattern of ownership with the

abolition of the Group Area Act in 1994 before the democratic election. According to

President Thabo Mbeki in Terreblanche (2005), “effort is being made to stop the

property boom with vast tracks of prime land zoomed off for the rich to live in exclusive

residential enclaves” (p: 1). Estate agents and building societies are now regulated to

ensure that different categories of houses are built in developing areas. It is very

interesting to see recent newly built high-rise buildings in places like Sandton and

Fourways thereby making houses affordable to different classes of people who now share

the same suburban. Golf estates and exquisite houses were the only sanctioned buildings

previously built on those kinds of places and it is believed that the new arrangement will

create avenues for racial and class integration in society. However, such high-rise

buildings have not been spotted in Northriding. With the available liberal economic

policies, government has provided a setting where everyone lives and works together in

spite of ethnic differences and not allowing the differences to become dividers or

boundaries by giving equal opportunity and equal respect regardless of race, creed or

faith. This ideal is aimed at creating harmony from diversity to achieve meaningful

national reconciliation. Also, the national objectives prescribed by the Constitution

identify non-racialism among the values on which South Africa has been founded

(http://www.info.gov.za/documents/constitutions/1196/96cons1.htm and Sisulu, 2005).

However, the government still has a long way to go in achieving its objectives because a

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lot of people cannot still afford some of the available houses because of the escalating

costs and global credit crunch.

The government has also continued to play the race card routinely to explain the social

and economic problems facing the country from the selection of the national cricket team

to South Africa’s socio-economic policies. The government has received some criticisms

for playing race card in the past. According to Frans Cronje (2004) of the South African

Institute of Race Relations in his presentation of Race Relations and Cultural Integration

in South Africa to the American Council of Young Political Leaders is of the view that

the South African government would want everyone believe that the effect of different

races and cultures have no impact on the internal and external relations of the country. He

cited how the government was quick to dismiss the UNDP report which criticised South

African government policy in 2004 employment equity related issues. The government

contended that the real problem was not because of policy but the fact that the UN

researchers lack of understanding of the history of racism in South Africa (Cronje, 2004).

All of the above notwithstanding and in lieu of South Africa’s history, I had hoped to

find out if the perception of the rainbow nation is turning out to be what it is hoped to be

amidst some social problems such as racialism, class and xenophobia. For some logistics

reasons, I could not do the finding through the methodology mapped out for it. However,

these concepts have been defined in the section of literature review. Essentially, this

research has explored the extent of racial integration in Northriding. Also, the possibility

of social cohesion among different racial groups in this suburb was established. Other

aims, which were posed as sub-questions included; how often do people interact with

their neighbours in Northriding Manor? Are there intimate relationships among different

racial groups in Northriding? How often do people engage in social activities within and

outside this housing complex? Are people marginalised in this suburb because of their

race? What about xenophobia? Again as mentioned in this paragraph, I could not cover

all.

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Part of the rationale included the fact that I am just a naturalised citizen of South Africa

and the issue of racial segregation and dichotomy was very strange to me. It was

important for me to know if possible, what people’s mindset on this issue was because I

was not able to get enough information about this phenomenon from South African

Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) of which I am a member. I wanted to know if this

issue of segregation in the past still affects where people choose to live in South Africa. I

hope that the answers provided in this final report have helped me and the general public

to be aware of societal racial integration if the report is published somehow. More

importantly, I hope that the government someday will read a similar report to enable it

make adjustments if necessary in its policies amidst perceived tension among different

racial groups as I may carry out this study in a larger scale in future. This explains why

there are a lot of questions in the questionnaire used in this research, though only the

relevant ones for this assignment were used during analyses.

The historical overview helped me to conceptualise the research question with the

literatures, articles and past research findings. They enabled me to come up with methods

for the research. In Chapter three, I used one method to get my findings during the course

of this research by applying quantitative method to arrive at a reasonable conclusion.

Though I taught initially that it was going to be easy reaching the participants, but my

experiences discussed in chapter three proves otherwise. In chapter four, the research

question was operationalised with all the key concepts from the literature review to

measure the level of racial integration and social relation in Northriding Manor

quantitatively. This helped me to analyse all the data collected during the field work.

Conclusion can be found in chapter five in which some issues were raised for further

research before offering my recommendations.

Now, the next chapter contains the literature review before I can get into the nitty-gritty

of the methodology, findings and analysis.

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CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

In order to answer the research question: To what extent is there racial integration in

Northriding, it is worth noting that socials facts such as race, identity and diversity are

discussed in the literature readings reviewed in this section. Also discussed herein are the

interpretations of the meanings if these concepts and issues limiting social integration.

The literature readings are so broad and I have reviewed them in this section in such

away that the topic will be understood in details. Before going into details of the

literature, it also is important that I unpack some classical sociologists’ (Durkheim and

Freud) views on integration and racism. Durkheim’s views will focus on social

integration and it will be connected to all the literatures dealing with social integration

while Freud will deal with racism and discrimination and forms links to other authors

talking about similar things.

Social integration is the process whereby different racial groupings and the foreigners

alike interact, communicate and co-exist (Okun et al, 1999). According to Durkheim in

Johnson (1986), it is a social fact and has an independent existence at the social level,

which is complemented by individual behaviour such as racial identities and class. Racial

differences cannot exist if there is no actor interested to play it. Social facts are

internalised by individuals through the socialisation process (Johnson, 1986). Children

ask questions as they grow up to know why there are differences in skin colours and

whatever explanation is given to them by their parents remain in their memories for the

rest of their lives. One would imagine what it will be like if a white child is told for

example that those with black skin colours are more beautiful and are the true image of

God (Johnson, 1986). I believe that without this internalisation of social facts, racism will

not be in existence in South Africa.

Also, Durkheim in Johnson (1986) talked about solidarity as the level of relationships

between individuals and other groups guided by shared moral sentiments and beliefs

reinforced by common emotional experiences. Solidarity transforms from organic society

to mechanical society with different levels of integration which further result in

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individualism as people are separated from one another through division of labour. He

argued that individualism undermines the collective consciousness in any sort of

solidarity. It also leads to violation of collective sentiments though deviant behaviour is

punished by deterrent to future deviation to re-establish the dividing line between socially

approved and disapproved behaviour (Johnson, 1986). In South Africa, people were

segregated to work in different locations within their own racial groups. However, people

from the non-white population were taking to the mines and other government

establishments to work for the apartheid government, which broke the solidarity that

existed in their communities as they left their love ones and work very far from their

home. Consequently, finding cohesion now in the society is proving difficult. Today’s

society does not share the same common values and norms, but is rather controlled by

laws and they are not interdependent of one another obtainable in organic society. This is

because different cultures, religion and profession now exist. Besides, there is no

punishment for refusal not to integrate with others in society now as to explain the racial

differences and disharmony in South Africa.

Finally, Durkheim is of the view that there are conflicts in common interest as a result of

loss of identification with larger society as different groups pursue their particular

interests at the expense of the welfare of society as a whole. Also, he maintained that one

of the unfortunate consequences of individualism is anomie or lawlessness. People begin

to think that life has no meaning and no need for interaction which often leads to anomic

suicides (Johnson, 1986). These days, people usually get paranoid and do not feel

comfortable with interacting with other people. In some urban suburbs, people result to

building booms, high walls and fences even in same housing complexes in which one

fence surrounds the entire building. Different units still try to put in some sort of fences

to separate their units from others. These sorts of practices make it difficult for some sort

of integration to take place leading to more fears and suspicions among neighbours. The

more people choose to confine themselves separately, the more difficult it is to associate

and know more about other people thereby making it difficult for social relation to be

positive in the society (Johnson, 1986).

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Having noted Durkheim’s theoretical concepts, I looked at how some literatures explain

these social facts. Many articles have been reviewed and they look at the dynamics of the

residence of the racially mixed residential areas in suburbs. For the purpose of this

research, black people have been referred to as Africans and the terminology is frequently

interchanged to suit the particular paragraph where it will be used. According to one

piece of the literature, suburbs are characterised by different people from different racial

categories, but they have the tendency to live and interact within same groups and not

among different groups (Rule, 1989). In Northriding Manor however, different racial

groups are staying in the same complex and my study has shown the extent of their

integration.

There is a debate about “white fears” and the relationship between racism and the

perception of crime. Many imply that most black people are criminals, which makes it

difficult for the white people to feel comfortable whenever the Africans are moving into

the suburbs (Mbeki, 2007). The resultant effect of this stereotype and generalisation is

that people stay apart without attempt to know who their neighbours are. Ted Cantle

(2007) identifies that communities live separately from each other in the same town and

cities. Meaningful interaction was virtually non-existent and consequently mistrust and

misunderstandings became common. According to Cantle (2007), segregation is

compounded by different communities having different identities and beliefs which are

similar to South Africa’s scenario though the research was done in Britain. He also

mentioned the fact that segregation leads to extremism which in turn leads to terrorism.

However, Cantle did not reveal the kind of cohesion among and between communities

borne out of historical past and neither did he state clearly the issue of terrorism resulting

from segregation and extremism (Cantle, 2007). South Africa experienced civil unrests

form the late 1960s up to the period of democratic elections in the country in which many

lives were lost. Beneath the veneer of tranquillity that existed after reconciliation still lies

resentment and bitterness in people’s mind because of loss of their loved ones as a result

of the impasse that took place thereby impacting negatively on integration.

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Some of the readings pointed out some concepts which could encourage integration in a

community with different ethnic groups. Cosmopolitanism and contact hypotheses were

sited. Rule’s (1989) research suggests that cosmopolitanism is one of the issues

explaining positive attitudes and social integration in neighbourhoods where contacts

among residents is minimal. Drawing from work by Merton (1957), Gouldner (1958, a

and b), and Gans and Keller (1968), he defined cosmopolitanism as encompassing three

dimensions: appreciation of high culture, political liberalism, and commitment to a way

of thinking not bounded by the immediate community (Rule, 1989). He also maintained

that this attitude may be revealed in how often one attends plays and museums. Also,

how one feels about controversial topics, how mobile one is, and how large is the area

with which he identifies (Rule, 1989).

Cosmopolitanism varies directly with social class and inversely with neighbouring or

interaction (Gans and Keller, 1968). This means that people from different classes can

stay in one location irrespective of who their neighbours are. This reasoning may be

stated in terms of three hypotheses: There is a positive relationship between social class

and cosmopolitanism. There is a positive relationship between cosmopolitanism and

positive attitudes towards ‘Negro’ neighbours. There is a negative relationship between

cosmopolitanism and neighbouring with ‘Negroes’ (Rule, 1989). People can choose to

interact with whoever they want to interact with and this does not depend on racial

differences. In relation to this research, the suburb of Northriding is not as big as the

cosmopolitan mentioned. However, people are usually in the same environment in

Northriding and this research has found out the level of integration in this area. Besides,

there is no such thing as Negro in South Africa. The white population is a minority in

South Africa unlike in United States of America where they are considered as majority.

Though the white population is the minority group in South Africa, they still posses the

majority of the economic power while the political power is in the hands of the African

community.

The different opposing power is also one of the sources of tension which though is not in

the open but there is feeling that the trust is shaky on both sides. The white community

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continue to think that they will be pushed out of the equation whereas the black

community believe that the country and its loots rightfully belong to them. So, different

cases may have different implications, but regrettably this research could not uncover it

as I intended to having heard this argument personally by interacting with the different

racial groups.

Another explanation of how social integration develops out of physical integration is by

the contact hypothesis. According to this proposition, increased interaction between

whites and any minority group, such as Negroes, makes for more favourable attitudes on

the part of whites, greater acceptance of the blacks, and integration of the racial groups.

Greater proximity of the whites to the Negroes and a longer period of association increase

the opportunity for contact. They thus make for increased tolerance and greater

integration of Negroes into neighbourhoods. Support for this hypothesis comes from a

number of studies in diverse areas (Zeul and Humphrey, 1971). There are two

assumptions made by the contact hypothesis. That white attitudes are initially negative

borne out of preconceived ideas about other groups, and that a large amount of contact

will ensure and change these attitudes of whites and a minority group such as Negroes are

brought into close and continued proximity (Zeul and Humphrey, 1971).

However, contact hypothesis does not seem to work in this context because there are

instances where situation gets worst and instead of integration some of the racial groups

move out from the suburbs and go to another suburb because of suspicion that blacks will

rob their houses and fear of being hijacked. Some say this behaviour has to do with some

encounters with crime and some believe it is just imaginary fear because crime is not

perpetrated by one particular racial group. In places like Hilbrow and Yeoville in

Johannesburg, they were used to be dominated by the white population but as soon as

other population groups began to move into that environment, the white people started

moving out from those suburbs.

Similarly, Hamber (2007) in Engineering News of February 23 to March 1 in his article

“Bigots, building bridges and multi-culturalism” hinted that 90% of people in Western

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World have no problem with someone of a different race living next door according to

research. He says it is a problem in South Africa due to history of segregation and

ongoing problems with racism. He analysed some proponents of the multi-culturalist

argument that groups will learn to co-exist over time if they have equal power and status

which seldom happens in South Africa’s case. In Northriding, there seems to be equal

power and status though they are difficult to measure. Hamber (2007) concluded his

analysis by proposing inter-culturalism aimed at learning about different cultures and

views and engage with these in robust dialogue. This requires recognition of

interdependence that is neither assimilation nor simply coexistence according to him.

Assimilation is the processes of people acknowledging other cultures and incorporating

them into their own culture.

Hamber (2007) continued his explanation by saying that this coexistence might be a step

along the way to interculturalism, but to see a society that is multicultural rather than

intercultural seems limiting. I can define interculturalism as the notion of getting to know

and show interest in other cultures while multiculturalism is internalising others cultures

by practice. He substantiated his argument with Zygmunt Bauman recommendation of

intercultaralism which posits the fact that as much as getting entangled in a particular

community creates security, it also creates fear as one is threatened by the presence of

others which is a mutual derision, contempt and hatred. The solution is to dialogue on

differences so as to shatter the myth of the community (Hamber, 2007). In South Africa,

people show negative attitude when it comes to matters dealing with other cultures,

which are why both intercultaralism and multiculturalism may not make much sense to

people here.

Some of conceptual issues that came out of this study are; class, racism and segregation.

Others are; discrimination, hatred and integration. These concepts are intertwined and

cannot be easily separated from one another in-depth and cannot be explained serially.

This is because there is correlation between them caused by similar factors and therefore

I will not go into details due to space. However, these concepts as Bash (1979) stated,

help sociologists to understand and explain social phenomena because of their special

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features, namely; their instrumentality, meaning their effectiveness in representing

empirical or observable phenomena. Therefore, the use of these concepts will permit

analysis of the situation and not just common sense knowledge with no empirical proof

(Bash, 1979). I am not too concerned with class or middle class as a concept, but it only

represents the sample that was studied in the research. Sigmund Freud (1961) helps in

understanding some of these concepts and suggests that people have the tendency to

internalise social facts such as racism and discrimination even when they have to give up

their happiness so as to function in an acceptable way of life in the society. In the

apartheid era, this way of life of racism and discrimination were acceptable thereby

impacted on the psyche of the people which is now very difficult to break. The thing that

was being practiced consciously has become embedded in the society and people are now

reproducing racism and other related behaviours unconsciously in the new South Africa

even though those practices are no longer acceptable. It has become a societal ill which

people are struggling to run away from and it will take a long time to do away with.

Some of the authors in the literature reviewed and already discussed in this chapter are in

agreement that the whites exhibit extreme isolation across all other racial groups with the

feeling that the middle class suburb is their birthright. The white residents have negative

attitudes towards other racial groups and this has led to no interaction amongst one

another. Consequently, some whites have vacated their apartments and moved to upper

class suburbs even when they struggle to pay the rents. Others have left the country

entirely to other countries and chose to earn incomes lower than what they were paid in

South Africa rather than staying (Bobo and Zubrinsky, 1996 and Zeul and Humphrey,

1971).

Critically, some of the articles focused on black and white ethnic groups though most of

the articles were not written on South Africa. Some that relate to South Africa talked

about integration between Chinese and the whites without stating whether there was

integration or not among other groups. My own research relates to some of the arguments

and conclusions identified by the articles because I sought to know the extent of racial

integration between all the races in a particular given middle class area. Others such as

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Hamber (2007) talked about suggestions to improve racial integration through inter-

culturalism without looking at other factors creating the racial differences. Gaps were to

be filled by getting in-depth information from as many different racial groups as possible

and not just black and white during the course of this study, but that did not happen.

Furthermore, the writers believe that there are perceptions of racial difference, but the

differences do not stop people from residing where they want to live. However, some of

the research was based on qualitative methodology and some quantitative. My study was

based on quantitative method, which is slightly different from qualitative research

method used in some of the literature. This is discussed in the next chapter, the

methodology.

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CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY

With a proper research design to answer the research question: To what extent is there

racial integration in Northriding Manor? I used a single method to get some data for this

report. The original ideology as already stated in chapter one was to use multi-methods,

but could not go through with it. My research strategy was determined by epistemological

and ontological considerations. Epistemological considerations refers to appropriate

disciplinary method of conducting research while ontological position is what determines

the way research questions are formulated and operationalised. To this effect, I used

quantitative analysis.

In answering the research question the study facilitated 44 questionnaires distributed to

the entire units in the housing complex. However there are some weaknesses from the

quantitative method which will be discussed in this chapter. Of note is the fact that there

were faire responses from the residence of Northriding Manor because only 18

questionnaires were completed and returned. However, I believe that I may not have got

the right answers from the participants from both the open ended and closed questions

either because they do not feel comfortable with the questions or that they do not want to

sound controversial. Still in this chapter, I am going to talk about the sampling method,

gaining access, ethics appraisal and data gathering methods

SAMPLING AND PILOT SUDIES

To enable me answer the research question, I conducted opinion polls orally from some

neighbours in this research site, Northriding Manor to find out their perception about the

research topic, racial integration in the middle class suburb. I also had some discussions

with some Wits Plus students and all the responses I gathered from the neighbours and

the students helped me to draft the questionnaire and the interview schedules.

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The research population consists of residents of Northriding Manor who were at least 18

years of age and they were made up of the different ethnic groups and immigrants. The

population can be classified as the middle class of the society going by their affordability

of the rent and/or ownership of the houses. Average house rent for each unit is R7, 000

per month and each house can be sold between R1, 000,000 to R1, 300,000. So, I used

purposive sampling and out of the 44 units, I expected to get at least 15 completed

questionnaires and at least 3 volunteers for interviews. Interestingly, I got 18 and 6

respectively. It was also a purposive sampling because the groups mentioned above

represented my target of different racial groups. The other reason was because there was

no way the level of social relations could be measured in the housing complex without

involving all the different racial groups.

GAINING ACCESS

I am a resident of Northriding Manor and did speak to the Chairman of the Body

Cooperate about the study. The initial response from him was not certain until I complied

with his demand, which is showing him the copy of the questionnaires. I also gave him a

letter requesting for his permission to conduct the research along with the copy of the

questionnaires. I had to give him those things before he granted the request for me to go

on with the research and with the condition that it was for research purposes only. The

copy of the questionnaires and letter to the Body Corporate can be found on pages 30 and

36 respectively.

ETHICS APPRAISAL

My research topic, which is the level of racial integration in middle class suburbs, is a

very sensitive issue and I had to ensure that I did not put myself or any of the participants

at risk having got the ethics clearance from the supervisor. Nonetheless, I did not give out

the research question to in the questionnaire, least there could not have been corporation

from the Body Corporate or the residents. So, to tackle the ethical issues, I stated in the

questionnaire that participation was voluntary and that no name or unit number of any of

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the respondents was required. In essence, anonymity was granted to all the participants.

Confidentiality of the raw data from the study was guaranteed, which I had to destroy

after analysing the data. Anonymity relates to situations where the participant does not

wish to be quoted directly and his or her name not to be mentioned. Confidentiality of the

information requires that the pieces of information obtained were used for the research

purposes only. For instance, it would have been unethical for me to use the pieces of

information acquired from the research to expose or put some people of the complex in

danger by revealing their profiles to the general public after promising not to do so.

DATA GATHERING METHODS

In gathering data, this research used past research, questionnaires, newspaper articles,

reports and aspects of the internet that focus on racial integration. The documents on

racism, xenophobia and racial relations were looked into and they were relevant in

gathering the data as they played major roles in all the data analysis. The purpose of this

study is to measure the extent of racial integration in middle class suburbs, which is a

social phenomenon. Social phenomena are real and exert an influence on individual’s

consciousness and behaviour which is different from ones psychological, biological and

other individual characteristics (Becker, 1970). This project is investigating real facts and

it can be studied through empirical methods. The primary research question is to use

Northriding Manor as a case study of level of integration in the middle class suburbs.

Based on this, quantitative approach is the most appropriate because the subjectivity and

objectivity that was used ensured that I come up with a good conclusion. This research

method was able to give the research a subjective meaning and uncover the social trend

by measuring the social facts I was concerned with. Thus, it gave me a clear idea on the

level of social integration in Northriding Manor (Becker, 1970).

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QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

Quantitative methods in form of questionnaires were drafted and distributed on the 6th

September 2008 to the 44 units in the housing complex. The questionnaires contained

open and closed questions. Some of the advantages of the open questions that helped me

in this research are that the questions do not in any way suggest certain kinds of answers

to the respondents and they enabled me to ascertain their knowledge and understanding

of the topic. It also created spaces for the respondents to give their own answers without

being forced to do so as well as not giving them the clear idea of the real topic (Bryman,

2004).

For the closed questions it was easy for me to process the answers given by the

respondents. The answers enabled me to compare relatively the answers to social

relations, which are aimed at investigating the level of contact the residents have with

their neighbours. On the other hand, there were possibilities for the respondents to give

wrong answers by first thinking it through before responding because the answers were

not spontaneous. Some of the answers provided by the participants overlapped. For

instance, where they had to make choices on age groups, different age groups were

selected and I found it difficult to categorise their exact age groups. Nevertheless, the

method helped me capture standardised information about relevant issues like feelings

and altitudes of different racial groups towards another, which impact on the level of

integration in the Northriding community (Becker, 1970). Thus, the questions focused

mainly on the relations between neighbours and how they interact. The questions also

looked at issues like how the people wish living arrangement ought to be and if they have

problem with the existing arrangements. The findings have been coded in the form of

descriptive statistics and the data presented in form of tabulation, graphs and frequencies.

Before forming the tabulation, graphs and frequencies, I had to summarise the closed

questions into a Manual Tabulation to form a (QRG) Questionnaire Response Grid. The

QRG and the frequency graphs can be found in Annexure One, page 29 and in chapter

four (Bryman, 2004). Having discussed issues relating to the methodology, I can now

unpack the most interesting aspect of this report in the next chapter.

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CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS/INTERPRETATIONS

This chapter presents the results and the analysis of the data collected during this

research. It brings together the different data types around key themes in order to answer

the research question clearly and have been classified into quantitative analysis. In this

quantitative analysis, the questionnaires were used among other things to analyse the

level of contacts among residents of Northriding Manor. This chapter further seeks to

make meaning of these findings by relating them to the existing theories and literature on

the issues of racism, discrimination and racial integration. The respondent’s profile is

discussed in the next subheading before the proper analysis of the results.

RESPONDENTS’ PROFILE

18 people residing in Northriding Manor responded to my questionnaires out of the 44

people expected to do so. I do not know if it is as a result of the timing or part of on going

racism in the society. Among these 18 respondents 6 of them were interested to be

interviewed as indicated in the questionnaire, but unfortunately I could not go through

with the interviews. As earlier mentioned in the methodology chapter, the response from

the questionnaire is just 40.9% of the entire unit, which may not be a true representation

of the residence and racial groups. However, I believe that data I was able to gather did

answer the research question. Of note is the fact that Northriding Manor is a very

peaceful residential housing complex without crime incidences and violence from my

experience of residency in the complex.

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

The findings from the questionnaires will be discussed in this section by graphical

illustration and tables on pages 19, 20 and 21 of this chapter and Annexure One, page 29.

My focus in this subheading is on the level of social integration and rate of interaction in

Northriding Manor. The graphs have been named as general percentage graph (graph 1),

19

percentage graph explaining the level of social integration (graph 2) and frequency graph

explaining social interactions (Graph 3).

Graph 1: General Percentage Graph

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Anwsers to Questions

Perc

en

tag

e

SAMPLE PERCENTAGES 42.3077 57.6923 61.5385 38.4615 80 20 19.2308 61.5385 15.3846 0 3.84615 53.8462 46.1538

male female yes no same different daily weekly monthly yearly never yes no

Gender int'act with

different groups

Girlfriend ethnicity Rate of contact Neighbour over

for meals

From the general percentage graph (graph 1) above, this is the demographics of all the

people staying in the complex from the 18 participants that completed the questionnaire.

57% of my participants are female and 43% male. The general interaction level is 62%

and 80% would prefer to have girlfriends/boyfriend from same ethnic group whereas

20% would consider a partner from a different ethnic group. The highest rate of contact

with neighbours is on a weekly basis at 62%, the worse contact measured in yearly is 0%.

4% indicated that they never had contact with their neighbours. However only 54%

would invite neighbours to dinner. These statistics indicate the level of integration in the

housing complex, which is high and also their level of interaction is also high at 62%.

This is in agreement with Zeul and Humphrey (1971) arguments on contact hypothesis,

which suggest that social integration develops out of physical integration of the different

racial groups. In essence, people are brought into close and continued proximity by living

in the same environment for some period of time (Zeul and Humphrey, 1971).

20

I am of the view that the housing complex is a little bit integrated as it comprise of the

different racial groups, however there are less number of coloured, Indian and foreigners

in the housing complex. Hamber (2007) stated that 90% of people in the Western World

have no problem with someone of a different race living next door but it is a problem in

South Africa due to history of segregation and racism. This statistics have shown other

wise and challenges Hambers’ argument as far as this housing complex is concerned.

Graph 2: Specific Percentage Graph

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

male

fem

ale

sa

me

diffe

rent

yes

no

daily

wee

kly

month

ly

yearly

neve

r

frie

ndly

gre

eting

casual

frie

ndship

Gender Girlfriend ethnicity Marriage ethnicity Rate of contact Relationship with

neighbour

Answers To Questions

Perc

en

tag

e

White

Black

Indian

Coloured

Other

Graph 2 is the specific percentage graph of different racial groups showing that 56% and

44% are male and female respectively among the white population. The black population

show 82% female and 18% male. The coloured, Indian and other categories are few with

one coloured male, three Indians males, one Korean female and one mixed Indian female.

Among the white population 84% are currently married/dating within their ethnic group

whereas 16% are married/dating from other ethnic groups. Among the black population

75% are currently married/dating from within their group and 25% are currently

dating/married from other groups. Among the white and the black population 75% would

consider dating/marring from outside their ethnic group while 25% would not. These

statistics clearly show that the level of integration in this housing complex is high but the

21

population group of coloured, Indians and foreigners are very few. Again, Zeul and

Humphrey (1971) argue that the white population are initially negative borne out of

preconceived ideas about other groups. This makes the tendency for the white population

to date or marry from outside their racial group to be infinitesimally minute (Zeul and

Humphrey, 1971).

The white population rate of contact on weekly bases is 55%, black on weekly bases is

72%, and Indians are split into daily, weekly and monthly at the rate of 33.3%

respectively. The coloured and other categories rate of contact are daily and weekly

respectively as high as 100%. 44% of the white population have invited their neighbours

to dinner while 56% have not. In the black population 54% have done so and 46% have

not. Among the Indians, 33% have invited neighbours to dinner and 66% have not. No

person from the coloured group and others category have not invited neighbours to

dinner. These statistics explains the fact that the level of interaction with in the complex

among the different ethnic groups is normal. Nonetheless, I could not really compare the

level of interaction because it is easy for one person to easily interact with people from

different groups and vice versa.

Graph 3: Specific Frequency Graph

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

male

fem

ale

sam

e

diffe

rent

yes

no

daily

weekly

month

ly

yearl

y

never

frie

ndly

gre

eting

casual

frie

nd

ship

frie

nd

intim

ate

rela

tion

ship

oth

er

yes

no

Gender Girlfriend

ethnicity

Marriage

ethnicity

Rate of contact Relationship with neighbour Neighbour

over for meals

Answers

Fre

qu

en

cy

White

Black

Indian

Coloured

Other

22

Graph 3 on page 21 is the specific frequency graph where it shows that the white men

have the highest population in Northriding Manor whereas the least are the immigrants.

The black female population is considerably higher than any other race-gender and there

is no coloured female at all in the housing complex. The white population has the highest

heterogeneous relationship within their own racial group followed by the black

population whereas the other groups are either single or have partners from different

racial groups. On the question of; would you consider marring somebody from outside

your ethnic group? The high number of white and black population responded positively

where as the lowest is the coloured population owing to the fact that there is only one

coloured respondent. On the contact level, the black people have the highest rate of

contact where as the Indians have the least. On relationships with neighbours, the black

people have a more positive social relations with their neighbours where as the least is

from the coloured community.

More integration of all these groups will eliminate racism, prejudice, discrimination and

other social vices. However, all the concepts mentioned in this chapter and taken into

consideration the responses from the open questions, which I did not go deep into have

made it difficult for the level of integration to be very high. This research has found that

people will continue to stay in the middle class suburbs together because they do not have

options. Also, they will stay because they like it and are comfortable with the presence of

other groups, but this does not mean that they care much to integrate with other people

from other groups. The findings are enough for me to make reasonable conclusion in the

next chapter.

23

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION/RECOMMENDATIONS

This project has taken stock of the level of social integration in Northriding Manor and

also has measured the social relations within the housing complex. Current media

debates, literature and past research where used to get all the concepts and positions of

different views with regards to discrimination, racism and social relations in Northriding

Manor in particular and South Africa in general. My methodology took into consideration

these concepts and debates and through the method of quantitative research, findings

have been made and analysed in Chapter Four. In essence, this research was explorative

because I did not know exactly what the result would be despite all the knowledge

acquired in the literature review.

In the quantitative analysis, a measurement of social facts such as racism and

discriminations were carried out through the deductive approach to test existing theories

on these issues. It was also based on positive and objective conducts so as to qualify the

findings. However, my findings show that the black population in Northriding Manor

have the highest racial interaction as the quantitative research has proven. Of a particular

and interesting note is that few of the participants hinted that they have invited

neighbours for dinner. Whether that is true or not is another thing because nobody have

invited me to dinner.

I believe that the research question; to what extent is there racial integration in

Northriding Manor, Northriding has been answered. However, I could not understand

why there are less number of coloured, Indian and immigrants in the housing complex

and this is open to further research. The coloured, Indian and immigrants generally

integrate easily and interact with different racial groups from my findings. However they

are in small numbers in this housing complex. This report will not be complete without

me making some recommendations that will improve integration and social relations in

Northriding Manor. I have proposed some points in the subsequent paragraphs, which I

see as possible panacea to improving these social phenomena.

24

Some of my recommendations on the improvement of racial integration and social

relations in Northriding Manor in particular and South Africa in general are direct result

of my findings in the previous chapter and all the literature read before this study. The

recommendations point to religion, culture and inequalities. From religious perspectives,

the issue of Islamic customs and dress code, which differentiate Moslems from other

racial groups by their way of dressing, should be handled in a civilised manner. There has

been increased discrimination against people of Islamic faith world wide since after the

events of 9, 11 in America and all the bombings in Europe. People should see the dress

code as just a different culture within a society without prejudging. Secondly, the

religious leaders must preach love to their followers rather than preaching messages that

suggest differences among people due to their religious beliefs. These steps will further

reduce the racial gaps in the society.

One of the biggest conflicts in multiracial societies such as Northriding Manor is social

inequalities in employment, education and housing. Blanket affirmative action is not the

solution because there is more diversity within groups than between groups. The

government has to review its policies on job employment by employing the available

skills in the country while at the same time should encourage those previously

disadvantaged communities to become skilful and creative through education. There is no

sense in reserving jobs to those who are not yet qualified and keep complaining about

lack of skilled workers in the country. Equality must deal with equality of education and

housing by improving on what is available at the moment. The so called government

schools are a charade because of lack of good facilities and quality teachers in the

government high schools and primary schools. Government should consider offering free

education in tertiary education to those who are interested to become teachers. These

people will then become teachers in these schools in the near future when they graduate.

Good education to the leaders of tomorrow will put our young ones’s perceptions about

others in a more positive frame.

On housing, it has been observed that high-rise buildings are springing up everywhere

now from Sandton to Polokwane in South Africa. However, the rich members of the

25

society are busy buying the flats and renting them out at rates they want thereby making

it difficult for most people of lower income scale to acquire. These buildings are aimed at

encouraging different members of the society to live together and the escalating costs in

getting these houses is putting that aim in jeopardy. So, government must regulate the

rents for these buildings.

It has been on forecast that South Africa’s population will reduce tremendously in 2015

due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. I think that what the country needs is diversity of

foreigners to cushion that effect of reduction in population. Immigrants are not the

problem in terms of racism and xenophobia, but the problem is the South Africans

themselves. So, government should ensure that the borders are secure, which in turn

means the SA’s population will not see immigrants as illegal like as the case has been.

Also, these immigrants must not be restricted to seek for jobs or seek for education if

they so desire so that the indigenes will see them as productive and good members of the

society and not just agents of illicit trades and petty thieves. Though these immigrants

come with their own different cultures, but it has to be realised that diversity is not a

burden but should become a benefit as people learn from one another.

Finally and most importantly, the best way to keep peace in culturally diverse areas is to

start with the children. Conflict between different cultures especially within the adult

population, is putting strain on the children and their acceptance of different cultures.

Therefore, improving interactions should start at the local level with children involved by

attending multi-racial schools. The children will experience different cultures as they

attend these schools. It is not only about respecting differences but also discussing and

feeling good about peoples multiple identities.

26

CHAPTER SIX: REFLECTION

In order for me to effectively answer the research question, I expended much energy in

reviewing a lot of books, articles and past researches. I was very much aware of what I

exactly had to do to carry out a good research, which included the research design to use.

Some of the questions in the questionnaires were to be followed up through in-depth

interviews. Qualitative method was to be based on an understanding of human behaviour

and social interaction within specific social contexts of racial integration. The method

would have enabled me get a deeper explanation and meaning of this research and also

supplemented the findings with the literatures reviewed.

Both quantitative and qualitative analysis would have complemented each other. In the

qualitative analysis, the answers obtained from the interviewees were to be measured

with all the literature reviewed. At the end of it all, I could have formed a triangulation to

show validity from the findings if I had used these multi-methods.

Regrettably, I used only quantitative method, which is somehow problematic. Some of

the answers given by the respondents on the open questions did not actually fall into the

topic and analysing them was a mere waist of time. Again, there are possibilities for the

respondents to give wrong answers by first thinking it through before responding because

the answers are not spontaneous. Some of the answers provided by the participants

overlapped. For instance where they had to make choices on age groups, different age

groups were selected and I found it difficult to categorise their exact age groups.

The above notwithstanding, I think I have learnt a lot conducting this research. Now, I

know how to write a literature review very well by making my own voice to be dominant

rather than what the authors say. In the past, I used to think that what matters most is

what the authors say and therefore was not confident enough to say what I feel about the

topic. Secondly, I was not under any sort of pressure doing the research because this is

the one of the two remaining courses I had to do to get my degree. It was fun.

27

REFERENCE LIST:

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intrusions upon sociological theory, London: Gordon and Breach Publishers Ltd.

Becker, H., (1970), Sociological Work: Method and Substance, USA: Aldine Publishing

Company.

Biko, S., (1978), I Write What I Like, Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Bobo, L., Zubrinsky, C., (1996), “Attitudes on Residential Integration: Perceived Status

Differences, Mere In-Group Preference, or Racial Prejudice?” in Social Forces, March

1996, 74 (3).

Bryman, A., “Social Research Strategies” in Bryman. A. Social Research Method (2nd

edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Cantle, T., (2005), in Community Cohesion: a new Framework for race and diversity,

Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Cronje, F., (2004), “Race relations and cultural integration in South Africa” in South

African Institute of Race Relations, 15 September 2004, Johannesburg.

Freud, S., (1961), Civilization and its Discontents, New York.: W.W Norton and

Company.

Gan, H., (1967), The Levittowners, New York: Vintage.

Hamber, B., 2007, “”Bigots, building bridges and multiculturalism” in Engineering

News, February 23 to 1 March 2007.

28

http://www.info.gov.za/documents/constitutions/1196/96cons1.htm.

Johnson, D. P., (1986), Sociology Theory, New York: McMillan.

Keller, S., (1968), The Urban Neighbourhood, New York: Random House Inc.

Mbeki, T., (2007), “Freedom from racism – a fundamental human right”, in ANC Today,

16 March 2007, 7 (10).

Okum, B.F; Fried,J, & Okum, M.L ,(1999), Understanding Diversity, Books/Cole

Publishing Company

Rule, S. P., (1989), “The emergence of a racially mixed residential suburb in

Johannesburg: Demise of the Apartheid city?”, in The Geographical Journal, Vol. 155

(2) The Royal Geographical Society.

Seekings, J. and Nattrass, N. 2006, Class, Race and Inequality in South Africa. Scottville:

UKZN Press.

Sisulu, L., 2005, “The Freedom Charter” in New Agenda 18 (2).

Terreblanche, C., “’Housing on steroids’ boon for SA” in The Sunday Independent,

September 25, 2005.

Zeul, C. R., Humphrey, C.R, “The integration of black residents in suburban

neighbourhoods: A re-examination of the contact hypothesis”, in Social Problems,

(spring, 1971), California: University of California Press.

Questionnaire 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Findings

29

Gender F F F F M M M F M F F F M F M M M M

Race B B B B I W I W W I W O I W W W C B

From SA or

abroad

Y Y Y Y Y N Y Y Y N Y N Y Y Y Y Y N

Language E E

X

T

E P T E

A

E

A

E E

A S

A

E

A

E

E

G

F

A

E

G

K

E F

E F

A

E F

A

E E

A

E

A

E,T

SS

Z

Religion C C C C T C H C C N C N H C C C C C

Time lived in

complex

5-8 5-8 2-4 0-1 5-8 0-1 0-1 0-1 2-4 5-

8

0-1 5-8 9 0-1 2-4 0-1 2-4 5-8

Age group of

adults

18-

24

&

39-

45

18-

24

&

39-

45

18-

24

18-

24

18-

24

32-

38

18-

24

18-

24

18-

24

46 32-

38

25-

31

39-

45

25-

31

18-

24

25-

31

18-

24

32-

38

&

39-

46

Different Ethnic

group

marriages/dating

N Y V V V Y V Y Y V N N N V V Y N Y

Consider

marring from

different ethnic

groups

Y Y Y V Y Y Y V Y V Y V Y Y N Y Y Y

Knowledge of

complex

ethnicity

Y Y Y N Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Rate of contact W W W W D W W M M W D W M M W W D D

Relationship

with neighbours

V F C F F F C F F V V V F F V F F F

Knowledge of

multiracial

functions

N Y V V V V V V V V N Y V V V N Y N

Enjoy living in a

multiracial

complex

Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Ever invited

neighbours for

meals

N Y Y N Y N N N Y Y Y Y N N Y N Y Y

Know if

foreigners live

there

Y Y Y N Y N Y N N Y Y Y Y N Y N Y Y