White neighborhoods are becoming darker in (1) ______ and more
expensive.
(1) ______. Analysts say that soaring house prices and
booming car sales are being fueled
by an (2) ______ mobile black
middle class
(2) ______.
emerging from the ashes of (3) ______.
(3) ______. Blacks, who make up about 75 percent of
South Africa’s 46.6 million people,
are moving from the
(4) ______ of the economy into the mainstream
(4)
______. thanks to policies aimed at redressing decades of
injustice.
Statistics compiled by the independent Human Sciences Research Council
(HSRC. show that the black middle class has (5) ______ to 7.8 percent of the
total population in 2000 from 3.3 percent in 1994.
(5) ______. "The development of a black middle
class was deliberately stunted under segregation and apartheid," said the HSRC’s
Roger Southall.
Although official figures are not (6) ______,
(6) ______. analysts say the black
middle class is behind the retail sales boom and strong house price
growth. Before 1994, blacks were (7) ______ by legislation from
owning properties in suburbs exclusively reserved for whites and had limited
access to bank credit.
(7) ______. But the face of the former white suburbs has
changed as blacks (8) ______ move from the townships in search of security
and better municipal services.
(8) ______. Living in posh suburbs is seen by many as a
status symbol.
"The black middle class is (9) ______ strongly to the
growth of the property market and other sectors of the economy," says
Jacques du Toit, an economist at banking group Absa.
(9) ______. House
prices rose by an (10) ______ of 30.3 percent in real terms in 2004,
(10)
______. the highest since 1967, and business is also booming for
auto traders, with a growing number of sales attributed to black
buyers.