Desegregation in Pietersburg after the repeal of the Group Areas Act

Since the Group Areas Act was repealed in 1991, black people have for the first time become legal home‐owners in previously whites‐only areas of South African cities. This survey is concerned with residential changes in Pietersburg between June 1991 and May 1993. The residential location of black people was monitored and mapped, and the first new black home‐owners were interviewed to determine their reasons for moving to Pietersburg. The survey shows that only blacks in the middle‐ and high‐income groups made the move, and that property values were not a deciding factor in the purchase of a home.

Notes

Respectively Lecturer, Department of Geography, University of the Free State, and Lecturer, Department of Geography, University of the North.

An earlier version of this paper was delivered at the Conference of the International Geographic Union in Berlin in August 1994. The authors are grateful to Mr MKR van Huysteen for his valuable comments and to Mr David Baxter for translating the paper into English.