Research Outputs (GCRO)

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Adventures in City Data: An Ethnographic Story
(Gauteng City-Region Observatory, 2022-12) Shirley Robinson
South Africa is urbanising rapidly, and its economic landscape is continuously changing as a consequence. In this context, city governments and urban scientists have long called for better access to city economic data. The National Treasury has reinforced this demand, insisting that intra-city economic data is critical in order to improve planning, performance and investment in South Africa’s cities. A wealth of data is collected by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) in the course of its routine operations assessing the tax obligations of companies and individual taxpayers. In addition to its bureaucratic purpose, this data represents an enormous potential resource for a detailed understanding of the urban economy. Until recently, this resource has been underutilised because it was not available in an anonymised and geocoded form. At a practical level, however, the significant amount of energy and time required to access, clean and align administrative datasets to make them usable is not generally understood. This GCRO Occasional Paper presents an ethnographic account of a decade-long journey in city economic data collation by the author who, as a long-term technical advisor to the National Treasury’s Government Technical Advisory Centre (GTAC), led the work on the city economic data programme in support of the first phase of the National Treasury’s Cities Support Programme (CSP). After observing the critical need for anonymised and geocoded economic administrative data in policy formulation and urban research, this paper examines the reasons for the limited availability of datasets able to show the location of economic activity and employment at a disaggregated local level. The paper details how the National Treasury’s collaboration with the World Bank in 2016 to produce the Urbanisation Review of South Africa stimulated and directed the efforts of GTAC and the Economies of Regions Learning Network (ERLN) to pursue official sources of city-level administrative data. The paper goes on to recount subsequent National Treasury/CSP collaborations with Statistics South Africa, SARS and the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) to collect and collate anonymised and geocoded city economic data from sources other than national general surveys. Despite progress, these efforts were ultimately stymied due to practical and governance constraints. Nevertheless, in a parallel process, these collaborations ultimately bore fruit in the establishment of a secure administrative data centre at the National Treasury that stores anonymised data, which can then be geocoded using postal codes. This secure data centre in turn, after the author had left the process, ultimately provided a foundation for the milestone publication of the 2021 City Spatial Economic Data Reports. The paper concludes by reflecting on the insights from this ethnographic account around possibilities for improving the integrity of the city spatial economic data resource, and enhancing its use in credible, evidence-based urban analysis. First, these conclusions highlight broader institutional and public management concerns in the current governance environment on which future steps to improve the city spatial economic data will depend. Second, the paper points out that, despite the long journey travelled, business classification uncertainty still remains. Solving these governance and data puzzles may further enhance the incredible potential that such a rich data resource holds for evidence-based policy aimed at creating a more just and equal society in South Africa.
Governing the GCR series: Displaced urbanisation or displaced urbanism? Rethinking development in the peripheries of the GCR
(Gauteng City-Region Observatory, 2022-04) Ngaka Mosiane; Graeme Gotz
This Provocation attends to a feature of the Gauteng City-Region (GCR) – its periphery – that continues to receive very limited public and private investment yet remains home to many hundreds of thousands of largely poor people. The extended GCR has a complicated social, economic and spatial structure due to the legacy effects of apartheid. That system’s laws against free movement frustrated the urban aspirations of the African population, forcing them to stay in the extended cheap labour pools of economically unviable bantustans, many in proximity to but removed from burgeoning city centres. This system has not unravelled with the formal arrival of democracy. The GCR remains a complex functional space whose edge is not defined by the boundary of the Gauteng province. Tens of thousands of commuters routinely flow across the northern boundary of Gauteng each day to work, shop, trade goods or seek employment in Pretoria and other Gauteng cities. This flow, and the lasting social, economic and spatial dislocation effects of apartheid it reflects, has come to be symbolised by the R573 Moloto Road, colloquially named the ‘road of death’ because of the staggering number of traffic accidents it sees each year. The question of what should now be done with the still underdeveloped zones of what has historically been termed ‘displaced urbanisation’ on Gauteng’s periphery, has occupied the state, amongst other actors, for almost three decades. Focusing on the efforts to conceptualise and plan for massive transport infrastructure along the Moloto Development Corridor as a key solution to the problem, this Provocation reveals a set of unresolved divergences within the South African state. Differences of opinion and policy approach – which pivot on whether it would be better to facilitate the continued, but safer, mobility of peripherally located commuters through massive rail development, or to encourage population relocation to Gauteng’s core – have meant that development efforts have so far remained largely uncoordinated. In turn, the gains that a negotiated process around a broadly common agenda could potentially yield have remained constrained. This Provocation contends that coordination through a strategy of mutual engagement remains absent because the relevant actors lack a shared ‘concept of development’. Both sides of the debate miss the significance of the day-to-day actions of residents, formal and informal traders, civil society, traditional leaders, and other actors, who are not waiting to be moved, or developed by transport investment, but are striving to transform the zones of ‘displaced urbanisation’ they occupy into vibrant spaces of ‘displaced urbanism’. We argue that this ‘displaced urbanism’ – the innovative co-existence of formal and informal land uses and activities; prolific acts of self-realisation by local residents trying to survive and pursue their aspirations; and, in turn, dynamic local economies from below – needs to be taken much more seriously on its own terms.
Spatial trends in Gauteng
(Gauteng City-Region Observatory, 2021-12-15) Ballard, Richard; Mosiane, Ngaka; Hamman, Christian
As many studies on urban transformation in South Africa have recognised, there is a difference between the ideals of spatial transformation and the ongoing production of space by many kinds of actors who are responding to a wide variety of opportunities and limits. While it might be possible to name post-apartheid urban ideals, unfolding spatial transformations in the democratic era underscore the disbursed nature of the energies producing urban space, and the need to understand and work with these energies as we find them in directing spatial transformation. GCRO's 19th Occasional Paper examines six spatial trends that have shaped Gauteng over the last three decades: Trend 1: From 1990 to 2000, an average of 36 km2 was converted from non-urban land use to urban land use in Gauteng each year. From 2000 to 2010, this decreased to 22 km2 a year, and from 2010 to 2020, it increased slightly to 25 km2 a year. Four-fifths of this growth of urban land cover was in the form of residential land use, most of which was formal. Trend 2: Alongside processes that extend the amount of land being used for urban land use, there is intensifying use of existing urban land. These processes of densification have concentrated half of the province’s residents on just 2% of the province’s land. Trend 3: The number of residential buildings in Gauteng has increased from 2.1 million in 2001 to 3.4 million in 2016. When mapped, new building growth is most prominent in townships where there has been a growth by more than 1 000 new structures per square kilometre in some places. One of the drivers of this growth is the ongoing increase in backyard dwellings. Trend 4: Ongoing production of residential buildings perpetuates, to a large extent, the broad affordability gradient that emerged during the city-region’s segregated history. Using two different types of residential morphology – gated communities and government-provided human settlements – we show that the production of different kinds of residential buildings, catering to divergent income levels, occurs in different parts of the city-region. Trend 5: Although there has been some racial desegregation, particularly in residential areas once set aside for white people, the city-region continues to show socio-economic segregation. An analysis of segregation shows the way in which middle-class suburbs are racially integrated but not diversified by income. Meanwhile, the more affordable nature of accommodation in townships continues to restrict working class populations to such spaces. Trend 6: The location of commercial and industrial buildings suggests an ongoing disjuncture between the largest residential population concentrations and many economic zones. This ‘spatial mismatch’ creates the need for people to commute long distances every day to work or to look for work. However, commercial and industrial buildings are also developing in and near townships.
South African Urban Imaginaries: Cases from Johannesburg
(Gauteng City-Region Observatory, 2022-06) Ballard, Richard; Mapukata, Sandiswa
Gauteng’s urban land cover growth: 1990-2020
(Gauteng City-Region Observatory, 2022-03-31) Ballard, Richard; Hamann, Christian
Economic and commuting connections in the northern GCR
(Gauteng City-Region Obervatory, 2022-02-28) Mosiane, Ngaka; Murray, Jennifer
This Map of the Month illustrates some of the ways through which the core areas of the Gauteng City-Region (GCR) are interconnected with their peripheries, including those that are outside the Gauteng Province, but are within commuting distance. The connections are drawn as straight lines from the start to end points, representing some of the regional flows of goods, services, and people (particularly workers). These flows signify disparate types of relationships between the city region peripheries and core areas, involving the transporting of mining supplies from Gauteng to Rustenburg mining operations. They also indicate relationships of interdependence, including daily commutes from northern Tshwane and former KwaNdebele to the City of Tshwane. It suggests that railway lines, highways, and roads are among the government's most important development interventions. Ordinary people themselves turn those facilities into resources to cope with, rework, or even overcome their marginality. The resultant large-scale practices and spaces of mobility overcome the divide between the core and periphery.
Rescaling municipal governance amidst political competition in Gauteng: Sedibeng’s proposed re-demarcation
(Gauteng City-Region Observatory, 2021-08-01) Mkhize, Thembani
The paper unpacks key developments in the Sedibeng merger proposal since its inception, particularly the multiple arguments for and against it. Insofar as resistance to the proposed re-demarcation has emanated from the ground – mainly from Midvaal residents – it has especially played out through the actions and conflicting utterances of the ANC and DA. While informed by technical reasons, both arguments for and against the Emfuleni–Midvaal merger have tended to gravitate more towards party-political rationales for why the re-demarcation should or should not go ahead. Although these debates raise important merits and demerits for the proposal, they are difficult to disentangle from the interests of those whose fortunes would be changed by restructuring. These competing claims have not only had implications for the governance of Sedibeng’s municipalities but have also affected ostensibly non-party-political institutions directly and indirectly involved in the re-demarcation issue.
In pursuit of just sustainability
(Gauteng City-Region Observatory, 2021-11-01) Culwick Fatti, Christina; Cohen, Brett; Jennings, Gail; Kane, Lisa; Rubin, Margot; Tyler, Emily
This volume is the product of a research collective that brought together researchers from different backgrounds to explore just sustainability in Gauteng. This research collective, which was initiated by the volume’s editor emerged out of a desire to explore from a range of perspectives those instances where social justice and environmental sustainability are not neatly aligned. The aim of such an exploration is to refine how just sustainability is conceptualised and put into practice.
Spatial trends in Gauteng
(Gauteng City-Region Observatory, 2021-12-01) Ballard, Richard; Hamman, Christian; Mosiane, Ngaka
This Occasional Paper considers six spatial trends in Gauteng. Notwithstanding intentions by the state to direct spatial transformation for the better, these trends are the physical manifestation, for better or worse, of a remarkable variety of actors responding to a wide variety of opportunities, incentives and disincentives. While it might be possible to name post-apartheid urban ideals, these six trends underscore the disbursed nature of energies that are producing urban space, and the need to understand and work with these energies as we find them in directing spatial transformation.
Johannesburg and its epidemics: Can we learn from history?
(Gauteng City-Region Observatory, 2020-11-30) Harrison, Philip
Covid-19 has massively disrupted life globally and locally, bringing many uncertainties in its wake. It is not, however, the first epidemic to pummel the Gauteng City-Region. This GCRO Occasional Paper provides a detailed account of previous epidemics, including smallpox, the plague, influenza, measles, polio, scarlet fever and HIV/Aids. It asks whether we can learn from this history to benefit the present time. It shows that although we must use history judiciously because circumstances vary enormously across time, there are persisting themes and a knowledge of history can help direct attention to critical concerns. These themes are addressed in the report and include: the uncertain and idiosyncratic course of epidemics; social fault-lines exposed through epidemics, worsened through scapegoating, stigmatising and pathologising; the effects on livelihoods and the economy; the impacts on spatial form and infrastructures; the ways in which governance impacts the course of epidemics; and the ways in which epidemics influence the continued evolution of governance.
Distribution of population vs economic activity
(Gauteng City-Region Obervatory, 2021-08-31) Mosiane, Ngaka; Murray, Jennifer
The location of population in relation to economic activity in the Gauteng City-Region (GCR) has been a subject of considerable interest from a number of researchers and institutions. This Map of the Month contributes to that body of work, highlighting a misalignment between where people live and where Gross Value Add (GVA) typically associated with urban development occurs. The map shows every ‘mesozone’ – equally sized polygons drawn by the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) – across the extended Gauteng City Region, using a radius of 175km from the centre of Johannesburg. The value of each mesozone is calculated by subtracting its share of the whole region’s population from its share of selected urban economic sectors. In green mesozones, the share of urban economic activity exceeds the share of population, while in red or orange mesozones, the share of population exceeds the share of the urban economy. The map draws attention to the edges of Gauteng’s metropolitan areas as sites with larger population shares than that of the economy (e.g. the red and orange shaded ‘mesozones’ in Soweto, Soshanguve, and KwaMhlanga). The opposite is true for the core of the GCR, which is characterised by high urban economic agglomeration compared to the people living there (e.g. the green shaded mesozones around Johannesburg and Pretoria).
Gauteng’s property gradient three decades after the repeal of the Group Areas Act
(Gauteng City-Region Obervatory, 2021-06-30) Ballard, Richard; Namponya, Alfred; Tshangana, Alison
In June 1991, the South African parliament repealed the Group Areas Act, the legislation that the apartheid state had used to drive urban segregation. To mark the three decade anniversary of this moment, this month’s map showcases remarkable analysis conducted by the Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa (CAHF) on property values across the three metros in Gauteng. It shows in broad terms the way in which historically-white suburbs continue to be the most financially exclusive parts of the city region. Each pie graph represents one Census subplace or suburb: the size of the circle reflects the total number of registered properties in that suburb while the coloured slices of the pie represent the number of properties in each market segment. Green and blue segments represent properties under R600 000, while red segments indicate properties over R1.2 million.
What are participants telling us as we collect data for the next Quality of Life survey?
(Gauteng City-Region Obervatory, 2021-02-26) de Kadt, Julia; Hamann, Christian; Mkhize, Sthembiso Pollen
Data collection for our forthcoming Quality of Life 2020/21 Survey (QoL 2020/21) is now over two thirds complete. Along with the regular difficulties of data collection, such as ensuring everyone’s safety and negotiating access to conduct the survey, data collection has also had to navigate the challenges of COVID-19, and more recently, heavy rains and flooding due to Cyclone Eloise. We hope to complete data collection by the end of May 2021, and share preliminary results in July 2021. While data collection is still underway, our February Map of the Month shares some of the comments and feedback we’ve received from survey participants since we started conducting interviews in October 2020. As part of our regular scrutiny of incoming survey data, we review comments shared by participants at the end of the survey interview. While the comments do not constitute representative survey data, and do not tell us about overall or localised levels of concern regarding particular issues, they do shed some light on the people behind the data we are collecting, and what is on their minds. We have identified some of the most prominent themes in these comments, and shared various colour-coded maps of the selected comments. We were struck that one of the strongest themes, shaded in green, was one of gratitude for the opportunity the survey provides for people to share their experiences and challenges. Many of these participants also expressed hope that their voices and concerns will be heard by the government, and will inform positive change. Other comments highlight issues or challenges that participants want to emphasize - key amongst these are crime and safety (yellow), unemployment (purple), governance (orange) and gender-based violence (red). These comments remind us of why we conduct the Quality of Life survey, and motivate us to do our utmost to ensure survey findings will influence decision making and action to improve living conditions in the Gauteng City-Region. GCRO thanks the fieldworkers from GeoSpace International for their enormous contributions to making this survey possible. We also thank all the participants across Gauteng who have generously given their time to participate in the survey. Without their willingness to share information about their lives and challenges, we would not be able to conduct this survey. As we are still collecting data all across Gauteng province, there is a chance that a GeoSpace International fieldworker may still knock on your door. If they do, we hope you’ll be willing to allow them to interview you!
An analysis of well-being in Gauteng province using the capability approach
(Gauteng City-Region Observatory, 2020-12-08) Mushongera, Darlington; Kwenda, Prudence; Ntuli, Miracle
The purpose of this occasional paper is to analyse well-being in Gauteng province from a capability perspective. We adopt a standard ‘capability approach’ consistent with Amartya Sen’s concept of capabilities (1985; 1993; 1999). This study builds on earlier research on poverty and inequality in the Gauteng City-Region (GCR) focusing on income inequality (Tseng, 2018), labour market inequalities (Kwenda & Benhura, 2018) and multidimensional poverty (Mushongera et al., 2017; Mushongera et al., 2018). These analyses were based mainly on objective characteristics of well-being, such as income, employment, housing and schooling. However, adopting a capability approach provides us with a more holistic view of well-being in Gauteng by focusing simultaneously on both objective and subjective aspects. According to Robeyns (2016, p. 1), the capability approach is a theoretical framework that entails two core normative claims: first, the claim that the freedom to achieve well-being is of primary moral importance, and second, that freedom to achieve well-being is to be understood in terms of people’s capabilities, that is, their real opportunities to do and be what they have reason to value. Writing from a feminist and social justice perspective, Nussbaum (2003) generated a list of what she considered the most central capabilities. These capabilities are relevant to the analysis of well-being in general and generate useful insights that can potentially provide an additional lens within the policy realm. They can be combined into indices that capture ‘functionings’, or the ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ indicators of well-being. Out of the ten capabilities suggested by Nussbaum (2003), our analysis is based on eight, namely ‘play’, ‘emotions’, ‘other species’, ‘affiliation’, ‘bodily health’, ‘bodily integrity’, ‘senses, imagination and thought’ and ‘control over one’s environment’. The analysis uses data from the Gauteng City-Region Observatory Quality of Life (GCRO QoL) Survey IV-2015/16 (GCRO, 2016), which asks a wide range of questions, and the response options vary significantly. For instance, some questions have binary responses while others have multiple possible responses, such as those captured by a Likert scale. To generate similar units of measurement, all indicators were normalised using a standard ordinal ranking procedure. Normalisation is a simple technique whereby all variables are scored consistently so that the lowest rank always indicates the worst outcomes and the highest means the best in relative terms; for example, for the Health Status Indicator, a rank of 1 is assigned to individuals with very poor health; 2 for poor health; 3 for good health; and 4 for excellent health (OECD, 2008). Each capability index in our analysis was computed as a weighted average of its related normalised indicator variables. The weights were generated using multiple correspondence analysis (MCA), which is an objective statistical approach. The results of our analysis indicate that the capabilities with high scoring indices are ‘play’ and ‘senses, imagination and thought’, while ‘bodily integrity’ and ‘affiliation’ scored very low. Capability achievements vary across race, age, gender, income level and location. The results confirm the well-known heterogeneity in human conditions among South African demographic groups. However, we observe broader (in both subjective and objective dimensions) levels of deprivation that are otherwise masked in earlier studies. Policies that directly target indicators for capabilities where historically disadvantaged and vulnerable groups (such as youth, elderly and the physically challenged) are deprived are highly recommended. Given the spatial heterogeneities in capability achievements, we recommend localised interventions in capabilities that are lagging in certain areas of the province.
Women and COVID-19 in Gauteng
(Gauteng City-Region Obervatory, 2020-08-31) Parker, Alexandra; Maree, Gillian; Götz, Graeme; Khanyile, Samkelisiwe
This August 2020 Map of the Month is presented as a story map and draws on the infection data from the Gauteng Department of Health (6 March - 7 August 2020) and GCRO’s March 2020 COVID-19 vulnerability indices based on Quality of Life V (2017/18) survey data, to understand the ways in which women may be more vulnerable than men to COVID-19. We also explore some of the implications for this gender bias in the number of positive cases.
The impact of COVID-19 on long term care facilities
(Gauteng City-Region Obervatory, 2020-10-01) Maree, Gillian; Khanyile, Samkelisiwe
For those who live in long term care facilities the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have been particularly devastating. For the September Map of the Month we explore the impacts on long term care facilities in Gauteng by mapping the known cases in these facilities across the province. Many, if not most, long term care facilities have had cases of COVID-19 across Gauteng. Most of these have been in retirement and frail care facilities, but facilities for people with mental and physical disabilities have also been affected. To date at least 243 facilities have recorded 2606 cases across Gauteng Province since March 2020. Many long term care facilities were overwhelmed or left unprepared for the impact of COVID-19. By now long term care facilities have been under lockdown for 6 months, with many residents isolated from family and friends. The move to level 1 and increased visitations to these facilities will be welcomed but comes at a high risk of new cases. High levels of vigilance needs to remain into the foreseeable future.
Gauteng going dark: How nighttime light intensity changed during early stages of lockdown
(Gauteng City-Region Obervatory, 2020-07-21) Naidoo, Yashena; Maree, Gillian
The COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa has had far reaching impacts on society and the economy. A national disaster was declared on 15 March 2020 and by 26 March 2020 strong restrictive measures were put in place to manage the spread of the disease. The tightest restrictions were in place for lockdown level 5 which lasted from 26 March 2020 until the end of April 2020. During level 5 all movement was restricted and only essential workers were permitted to work. The country's borders were closed; interprovincial movement was banned; all gatherings except for small funerals were prohibited and schools, restaurants and non-essential businesses were closed. With movement restricted, activity was confined largely to domestic spaces. In the July 2020 Map of the month, we use nighttime satellite data to see whether night light intensity across the Gauteng City-Region reflects the impact of lockdown. We looked at how light intensity changed from before lockdown (March 2020) to lockdown level 5 (April 2020). In the full write up, we also show a second map of the difference between level 5 night light brightness (April 2020) and level 4 brightness (May 2020). The maps show a clear dimming of light intensity which resulted from reduced nighttime activity during the various lockdown levels. Roads were noticeably darker with far less vehicle traffic on main highways and many areas with usually vibrant activity at night were darker. As restrictions have eased, light intensity and nighttime activity have increased again across the GCR.
Urban agriculture in the Gauteng City-Region’s green infrastructure network
(Gauteng City-Region Observatory, 2020-07) Camargo Nino, Eliana; Lane, Sam; Okano, Kanako; Rahman, Irvanu; Peng, Bo; Benn, Hannah; Culwick Fatti, Christina; Maree, Gillian; Khanyile, Samkelisiwe; Washbourne, Dr Carla
As cities in developing countries contend with the challenges of urbanisation, they need to rethink the traditional modes of urban planning and development. Part of this logic is to cater for growing populations without compromising urban environments and social development. Green infrastructure is one such approach that aims to meet infrastructure and service needs while ensuring the proper functioning of natural ecological systems. Urban agriculture can create multifunctional green assets in the form of urban farms and food gardens. When planned accordingly, urban agriculture can contribute to addressing a range of issues in the Gauteng City-Region (GCR). In the City of Johannesburg, the expansion of urban agriculture, and green infrastructure more broadly, aligns with and could contribute to multiple development goals. This paper interrogates whether a green infrastructure approach could offer the potential to improve urban agriculture efforts if the approach can be mainstreamed into municipal development processes. Realising the benefits of urban agriculture hinges on integrating these approaches into municipal planning and projects, as well as on improving the productivity of ecosystem service delivery from both green infrastructure and urban agriculture. The focus of this report is pertinent in light of persistent infrastructure and service delivery backlogs in the GCR, considerable challenges around food systems and food security, and a highly unequal urban spatial form – all of which impact the distribution of infrastructure and services, both green and conventional. This report argues that a green infrastructure approach is valuable for drawing important connections between focus areas related to urban agriculture that are traditionally siloed. The analysis focuses on urban agriculture in the GCR’s green infrastructure network using urban food gardens in the City of Johannesburg as the unit and site of analysis. This occasional paper falls under the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) Green Assets and Infrastructure research and links urban agriculture and green infrastructure in the GCR together for two main reasons. First, the paper outlines how food gardens are a key component of the interconnected set of the natural and constructed infrastructure systems within the city. This framing helps to link urban agriculture and food systems research to broader municipal development goals in terms of infrastructure and service delivery. Second, the paper outlines evidence of the wider social impact of food gardens which validates the ability of green infrastructure to meet social, economic and public health goals (e.g. social cohesion, employment, economic resilience) beyond a purely environmental focus. Understanding food gardens as multifunctional green assets is one way to promote and secure investment in urban agriculture in the GCR.
Quality of Life Survey V (2017/18): The quality of life of students in Gauteng
(Gauteng City-Region Observatory, 2020-07) Hamann, Christian; Joseph, Kate
In the Quality of Life (QoL) V (2017/18) survey, respondents from all population groups were represented in the student sample. However, a higher percentage of all Indian/Asian respondents (17%) and white respondents (13%) were registered as students compared to the proportion of all African respondents (10%) and coloured respondents (11%). The differences were larger among younger respondents from each population group. • However, racialised socio-economic inequality is evident in the fact that the average monthly household income of African students was around R11 755 while the average monthly household income of white students was around R38 541. • Similarly, a lower percentage of African students reported having access to assets which are likely to assist learning (like a laptop or internet at home) when compared to the access of coloured, Indian/Asian or white students. But African and white students had higher levels of access to these assets than African and white non-students. • The majority of all students in the sample would have qualified for National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) funding (69%) based on their household income. A further 26% of students were considered part of the ‘missing middle’, and only about 5% of students could be categorised as upper class. Racialised socio-economic inequality is evident in students’ average monthly income • There were important lifestyle and class differences between full time and part time students. On average, students had a higher socio-economic status than non-students, but part time students had a higher socio-economic status than full time students. • The mean age of full time and part time students was 24 and 31 years, respectively. Further, part time students were more likely to be household heads, while in the households of full time students it was more likely for the mother or father of the student to be the head of the household. • On average, students were 6% more likely to be satisfied with a range of services, facilities and spheres of government than non-students, but higher satisfaction with services did not translate into higher satisfaction with spheres of government. • Although the differences remain relatively small, students were more likely to respond positively on various measures of physical wellbeing (like general health status) and mental well-being (like having emotional support) than non-students. • Despite a significant degree of racial inequality in the student sample (in terms of income and access to assets), students score higher on the overall quality of life index than non-students. • While respondents born in Gauteng were the most likely to be students (12%), migrants from other provinces were nearly as likely to be students (11%). By contrast, only 6% of respondents who had migrated from another country were students. • Across QoL surveys, students predominantly made use of taxis (44% on average) or private motorised transport (31% on average) for their trips to the places where they study. • A slightly smaller percentage of students (7%) participated in protest action compared to non-student respondents (9%).
Mapping vulnerability to COVID-19 in Gauteng
(Gauteng City-Region Observatory: Map of the Month, March 2020, 2020-03-20) de Kadt, Julia; Gotz, Graeme; Hamann, Christian; Maree, Gillian; Parker, Alexandra
The world is reeling as COVID-19 infections spread. This Map of the Month aids an understanding of the localised risk factors that might contribute to transmission of COVID-19, or amplify its health and socio-economic impacts in Gauteng communities. It explores two key themes: (1) the multiple risk factors to maintaining social distance and preventative hygiene; and (2) the multiple risk factors for health and socio-economic vulnerability during an outbreak or broader shutdown.

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