DOCUMENTS

What the whites feared

White South African attitudes to black majority rule in the late apartheid period

White attitudes to black majority rule in South Africa, 1979, 1984 and 1987

 

1979 Study (n =350)* Afrikaners

1984 Study (n = 150)* Afrikaners

1987 Study (n= 1,012)

 

Afrikaners

English-Speakers

Statements

Agree

Disagree

Agree

Disagree

Agree

Disagree

Agree

Disagree

1

Life for whites would carry on as before

2.3

86.4

1.9

83.9

7.1

91.2

10.5

84.4

2

The physical safety of whites would be threatened

84.3

4.6

80

5.5

78.5

19.1

70.1

22.1

3

The language and culture of white society would be protected

13.3

68.7

9.6

76.3

8.3

88.5

14.6

75.2

4

The income and living standards of whites would suffer

83.8

8.4

85.2

4.3

82.4

15.5

78.9

15.9

5

Law and order would be upheld

11

73

5

77.8

12.8

84

14.8

73.3

6

Blacks would discriminate against whites

91

3.5

94.8

2.7

91.4

6.8

78.2

12.1

7

White women would be molested by blacks

83.7

4.4

81.7

8.6

85.3

10.8

60.1

26.7

8

Communist policies would be implemented

89.6

4.3

94.1

2.2

88.3

7.6

67.9

17.3

9

White possessions would be safe**

-

-

-

-

8.4

87.5

17.3

69.5

*As is made clear in the text, only the 1987 findings are based on a national sample and therefore representative of white South Africa as a whole.

**This statement was not included in the 1979 and 1984 studies.

Source: Pierre Hugo, "Towards Darkness and Death: Racial Demonology in South Africa", The Journal of Modern African Studies (December, 1988)

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