ABSTRACT
As South Africa marks 20 years of liberation from apartheid, this historic process is not
only cause for celebration but also, importantly, for reflection on the changes that have
occurred since 1994. One topic that has drawn the attention of scholars is the question of
the black middle class. It is often argued that this class only emerged (but then grew
rapidly) in the post-apartheid period (Rivero et al., 2003; Udjo, 2008). Before 1994,
colonialism and apartheid had imposed numerous constraints on Africans, including
violent dispossession and a battery of laws that severely curtailed their ability to
accumulate wealth and form a stable middle class. The liberal view holds that the
development of a middle class is critical to social stability, as it mediates between rich
and poor (see, for example, Lipset, 1968; Huntington, 1992). Against this backdrop,
reflection on the history of South Africa’s black middle class is particularly
appropriate in the 20th year of democracy.