Only 9% of blacks see land as 'more important than jobs and education'

A survey by the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) suggests that black South Africans would rather have jobs than land.

Most people felt getting jobs and a better education were the most important immediate ways to improve people's lives, with 59% of all respondents endorsing this option. Of this number, 57% blacks and 72% of whites shared this perspective. Only 9% of black people thought land was the way, while 2% of white people polled same.

Despite the public being inundated with stories about racially motivated attacks, Marius Roodt, IRR's head of campaigns, said the long-term trends paint a generally positive picture and most of the respondents thought race relations had improved since 1994.

"Just because people said they would rather have a job than land does not mean they don't want land - it's a question of when.

"Close on two-thirds (64%) of black respondents believe race relations have improved since the political transition, while 13% of black people said they had stayed the same. The percentage of blacks who thought race relations had 'gotten worse' since 1994 was very much smaller, at 20%," Roodt said.

On top of this, black respondents perceive whites as "second-class" citizens, meaning that SA today is a country for black Africans, and white people must learn to take second place.

The institute's analysis of this was that political rhetoric strongly criticising white people has had a significant polarising effect over time.

"The ruling party often blames SA's current problems of poverty, inequality, unemployment, low growth and poor education on racism and colonialism.

"Almost two thirds of all respondents (64%) agree that politicians are exaggerating the problems posed by racism and colonialism in order to excuse their own shortcomings. A high proportion of black respondents (60%) also agree with this statement. Indians and whites see such talk as a particular problem, with 75% of Indians and 89% of whites effectively agreeing that politicians are playing the race card for their own ends," said Roodt.

The IRR report is in contrast to the December 2018 "Human Rights Commission Trends Analysis Report" that highlighted the prevalence of racism, saying derogatory comments against black people were "rife", and "the use of the k-word was endemic". The opinion survey from December 2018 was done through 1,010 telephone interviews with adults (aged 18 or more) across the country. Of these respondents, 771 were black, 97 were coloured, 25 were Indian, and 115 were white. ​