This paper investigates young black South Africans’ perceptions of social
mobility and economic inequality, using targeted ethnographic interviews in two
non-major metropolitan areas of South Africa, and compares these with
previous research in metropolitan Cape Town. The two areas studied were the
rural communities around Mount Frere (in the Eastern Cape) and the mediumsized
town of Newcastle (in KwaZulu-Natal). Interviewees in Newcastle had
similar conceptualisations of the distribution of income in South Africa to those
in Cape Town, while interviewees in Mount Frere differed. The latter seemed to
base their perceptions on their experiences outside of Mount Frere and were
much less focused on the continued association of race and class than those
from Cape Town and Newcastle. Respondents in Mount Frere and Newcastle
agreed with the Cape Town interviewees about the importance of education for
getting ahead, but they also stressed the necessity of political connections and
highlighted the danger of drugs and alcohol for their mobility prospects. The
interviews in Mount Frere and Newcastle additionally suggest the troubling
possibility that a ‘mobility trap’ has developed in both areas.