The New Black Middle Class in South Africa

Softcover. English. Jacana Media, . 2016. ISBN: 9781431423163. 296pp.

Good condition in softcover.

Despite the fact that the rise of the black middle class is one of the most visible aspects of post-apartheid society and a major actor in the reshaping of South African society, analysis of it has been lacking. Rather, the image presented by the media has been of black diamonds, that is, above all, as consumers of the products of advanced industrial society, and of corrupt tenderpreneurs who use their political connections to obtain contracts which they would otherwise be denied. At the same time, the restrictions upon black professional and entrepreneurial activity in the apartheid era stunted the development of black capitalism and the black middle class, while the growth of a substantial black working class which became the class vanguard of the political liberation of South Africa, pushed the role of the middle class into the shadows. Book No: 48512