Are All Men Served Equal(ly)? The Development of the Racial Gap in Public Services in Post-Apartheid South Africa

We analyze comprehensively the development of post-apartheid racial gaps in core public services – utilities and school completion rates – in South Africa. Using census data and community surveys with more than 7 million respondents over the period 2001 - 2022, we find that the black African population has caught up in a number of core services (piped water, electricity, primary and lower secondary education), but has continued to lag behind in others (sanitation and waste removal); too little progress has been made in upper secondary education, which is key to upward social mobility. Service improvements were unequally distributed and favored predominantly the employed, the well-off, and the urban black African population, leaving behind the poor, and mostly rural black people. The racial gaps thus show an intricate urban-rural divide.