Periodic studies into the black middle class by the UCT Liberty Institute of Strategic Marketing conducted over the past 15 years show dramatic growth in this demographic, whose expansion eclipses that of the white middle class.
The “Black Middle Class Report” project reflects the significant and continued rise of this population segment and the nuanced changes in it over the years. While the reports focus on economic factors, it is the “soft power” elements — social, political and cultural — that could be decisive in who rules South Africa. It might be the black middle class that defines “the will of the people” and which party best represents it.
Expanding the middle class has always been the key to realising a modern and prosperous society. It is a requirement for transforming the economic growth model. This group is critical to building and maintaining social harmony, stability and social cohesion.
The middle class has a high level of homogeneity that transcends race and gender divides; members generally play by the same rules. A shared belief in the right to choose and the cardinal freedoms — of speech, conscience, association, the media and assembly — means members of the middle class support a diversity of social conditions and opinions. They are the most political and opinionated stratum of society. They understand what the critical prizes of politics are. They know the importance of government as the ultimate prize of politics.
They constitute the cognitive elite of society and can determine the cadence of politics. Contrary to popular belief, most revolutions are conceptualised, planned and orchestrated by a middle class that the ruling hierarchy ignores. This class is usually the first to point out the inequality of access to political power. It will use its influence or leverage to challenge and ultimately change the status quo. Correlations between social and political status, which define democracies with gross inequalities such as South Africa, mean that members of the middle class are strategic elites.
Detached from traditional society, they were employed as teachers, church ministers, clerks, interpreters and journalists, and aspired to show how easily Africans could adapt to white civilisation
— Lord Milner
This class’s interests generally become practical politics. In a report to the British colonial office, Lord Milner, the governor of the Cape Colony at the turn of the previous century, described the black middle class of his era as having “emerged from mission schools strongly attached to the ideals of Christianity”.
They wore “Victorian attire, adhered to British cultural values, and put much of their faith in what they referred to as a white sense of fair play… detached from traditional society, they were employed as teachers, church ministers, clerks, interpreters and journalists, and aspired to show how easily Africans could adapt to white civilisation. They envisioned a ‘nonracial civilised’ society where merit counted more than colour.”
Theoretically, they could be dubbed the new black elite. They embraced modern political thinking and modern (read Western) behaviour and practices. They practised a mainstream, European-derived Christianity and became South Africa’s first generation of African (nonethnic) nationalists. The post-colonial, post-apartheid black middle class is different to the template of the early 1900s. Members of it tend to see themselves as a powerful, durable institution.
The middle class’s soft power — its ability to co-opt and influence the rest of society — is one of the crucial factors in electoral outcomes, and next year will be no different. The moral authority of the anti-apartheid struggle, which included winning international agreement that apartheid was a crime against humanity, depended in large part on the calibre of its leaders.
What is unfortunate about the upcoming elections is the depth of discontent within the middle class, the people who command access to most of the platforms where political parties seek to be heard.
They are still teachers, journalists, academics, priests, police officers, clerks, lawyers and leading members of civil society organisations. Any institution with any clout is led, managed or dominated by the middle class. Those members of it who fall into the celebrity category have particularly wide-ranging influence.
Middle-class interests will impinge upon all voters. Members of this class know how to spread their ideas.
• Dr FM Lucky Mathebula is the founder and CEO of Thinc Foundation in Tshwane. He is a public policy resource expert specialising in intergovernmental relations and public administration.
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