More important issues than race - survey

A recent survey by the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) involving more than 2,100 South African residents aged 16 and above suggested that the nation was more preoccupied with issues like unemployment and HIV/AIDS than with race, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has reported.

The sample was drawn from nine socio-economic groups stretching from deep rural areas to the cities, and embraced people of all races. The survey was commissioned to coincide with last month's World Racism Conference in the port city of Durban.

The key findings of the survey - Race Relations and Racism in Everyday Life - were that although racism did feature as one of the major unresolved problems in the new South Africa, only some 8 percent of all adults gave it priority, compared with 55 percent who saw unemployment as their top concern. Race issues came ninth in the list of major unresolved problems, after unemployment, crime, housing, lack of water and sanitation, poor health services and AIDS treatment, deteriorating infrastructure and lack of electricity, the report said.

And around half of all those surveyed thought that race relations had improved in recent years. But around 14 percent of all adults felt they had serious problems with the way they were treated by others. At the same time, however, among only 5 percent did the treatment have a racial character - the rest was personal, domestic or occupational.

Professor Lawrence Schlemmer, who oversaw the survey, commented that: "The ordinary people surveyed in this study are deeply conscious of racism and the latter-day consequences of apartheid, but they are also aware of the other factors in the complexity of causes of poverty and disadvantage. It is remarkable how little they have oversimplified these serious issues."