POOR WHITES The white Afrikaans minority enjoyed preferential access to employment during the apartheid era. Positions within the government, police force, military and parastatal organizations were staffed predominantly with Afrikaners. English speaking white South Africans came second in terms of access to skilled and well paid employment and the black majority were by and large excluded. However, since the advent of the “New South Africa” and the adoption of employment equity policies, many white South Africans who would previously have had access to employment, now find themselves unemployed. With the demise of sheltered employment programmes, many white South Africans are now unemployed and unemployable. This has swollen the numbers of so called Poor Whites, many living in the areas of predominantly multi racial residents.
