“Before the Early Darkness, But Not Alone Please”: Patterns of Physical Activity in Public and Private Spaces and Quality of Life in Post-apartheid South Africa

Abstract

This chapter is a reflexive and researched account of a living experience that focuses upon juxtaposing conditions in a society still divided by race and class. It is about middle class South Africans who are vivaciously conscious about maintaining their quality of life against the numerous odds that characterise South Africa’s contemporary socio-political conditions. “Quality of life” in this context is reference to the ubiquitous adoption and maintenance of western norms of lifestyles. It is seen in the architectural designs of the homes, the spatialized suburban based shopping malls that mark a significant shift away from conventional styled central business districts (CBDs), and gymnasiums that are centrally situated to target the captive markets of surrounding suburban complexes. Like other middle classes throughout the world, quality of lifestyle in South Africa is about working hard to remain within the precincts of congenial environments that encourages upward mobility. But unlike other countries, there prevails a passionate boundedness against the unknown in their public and private living spaces, supported by a significant enhancement in the use of electronic wireless social networks through mobile/cell phones). South Africa’s current spate of violence in middle class areas is perceivably about underclass thefts and attacks’ from the well-endowed middle class segments. But the realities are beyond such simplicities. Vigilance, more than vigilantism, against such attacks, has brought people together from across racial divides, from an era of racial rigidity that was once unthinkable. They are collectively engaged in safeguarding not only property and possessions but a “quality of life” that is characteristically ‘South African’.