ABSTRACT
Any analysis of South African metropolitan areas necessitates an appreciation of the country's complex racial structure and the role that this structure plays in determining the governmental and the planning processes at present. For more than 100 years political and economic dominance has been maintained by a ruling White minority of European origin over a more numerous Black population comprising the indigenous African and Coloured (mixed) peoples and the immigrant Asian, mainly Indian, group (Table 4.1). In 1970 Whites accounted for only 32 per cent of South Africa's urban population and Blacks for the remainder. Similarly, of those in non-agricultural, mainly urban employment only 27 per cent were White. Yet in 1970,65 per cent of those employed in white-collar occupations and 79 per cent of those with a Standard 8 education and beyond were White. In the major sectors of the economy incomes of Whites are three to five times greater than those of Blacks (1978).
