The emerged blackoisie
Black money is spurring the South African boom. went out to play
The moon is full and the sky is cloudless. The music — between smooth jazz and contemporary adult — plays subtly in the background, not disturbing conversations.
At the door, bouncers in dark suits ensure that those wearing takkies and those who can’t prove they are older than 25 are not allowed in.
Inside, some sit on couches, others at dining room-type tables and chairs. Because it is a hot summer night, the fireplace in the centre of the room is cold.
This is the Backroom, in Pimville, Soweto. It is fast establishing itself as the haunt of the established and emerging black middle class.
The fashion stakes are high, too. One man is wearing a white linen suit and a pink shirt. Jeans and blazers are en vogue for men. For the women, the dress code is miniskirts or three-quarter pants with halter-neck tops. The textiles may be different, but the essence is the same.
The music speakers mounted on walls are relentless.
The parking lot, resembling a dealer’s showroom with its gleaming wheels, is full. Many cars have to be parked in the field near the pub.
One of the vehicles inside the lot is a Bentley. With the simple act of parking the car, the owner has sent a statement to those BMW and Mercedes-Benz owners, especially those from outside Soweto, who think that driving their precious cars into Soweto is too much of a risk.
“We had a Hummer here the other day,” says TK, a waitron at the Backroom, as though to say there was nothing aberrant about the Bentley.
The South African distributors of the Hummer say the two available models, the HT SUT and H2 SUV, have a price tag of about R1,4-million and will only be available at the Toits Motor Group in Gauteng for now.
Returning to the Bentley, TK adds: “In fact, the Bentley was driven by a sister. I don’t know where she is from, but she comes here sometimes.”
The empowered and confident women seen at such places are another feature of the much talked about blackoisie.
Few things infuriate women patrons at these drinking places more than the assumption that they are on a fishing expedition for dates.
“I don’t know why men think that single women cannot come to these places just for fun and not to meet men,” says Thuli Zwane.
As with many patrons here, after fun has been had, the Bentleys, Audis and BMWs join the freeways leading out of Soweto.
Many here now have homes in the former whites-only suburbs, but the lure and the texture of lokshin (the township) are irresistible.
As an indication of the unapologetic desire for the finer things in life, construction on a cigar lounge is in progress at the restaurant-pub.
For those patrons and their families who choose to watch the weekend’s soccer match on TV, Sunday lunch is served.
Across town, Devine Lounge in Rosebank is the place to be. The lounge setting, couches and wingback chairs are a bit misleading. At night, the lounge becomes a DJ’s stomping ground, unlike in Pimville where conversations seem to be preferred to gyrations.
The sounds coming from the turntables are for dancing. From Womack & Womack’s classic hit Baby I am Scared of You to the cacophony of modern house, the order is clear: get out of the armchair and on to the dance floor.
Not even the arrival of Kaizer Chiefs coach Ernst Middendorp and his friends elicits a response to the crowds that are gathered here. For them, he is just another guy out having a drink with buddies.
The Lounge is one of the plethora of clubs in the Rosebank area — Capi-tol and the Rubicon make it to that list — that have become to the area what Yeoville was to the young and happening in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Capitol’s boss, who identified himself as Jorge, refused to have any mention of his Rosebank club in newspapers.
Jorge’s media antipathy notwithstanding, his 600-seater joint with couches and mood lighting is a hit with the young and hip with some cash to spare. The blackoisie, of course, fit that bill.
For Lulu (she did not want to give her full name because “it may create a wrong impression” with her parents in the Eastern Cape), Devine Lounge is changing. It is becoming younger, but no less hip. She is in her mid-20s, and works for a media and communications company in Rivonia.
“When I first started coming here, the crowd was a bit older. I am not saying it has become boring or anything, I just mean that this place is starting to attract people who may have thought that this place is for older people. But it is still rocking.”
If Lulu is correct, then Katzy’s, a stone’s throw away, must be the bene-ficiary of this trek. Not that Katzy’s was ever in competition with the rather rumbustious Lounge crowd.
Katzy’s is more sophisticated. The clientele is more settled and more cosmopolitan.
On this night, Moroka Swallows coach Gavin Hunt is enjoying a drink with friends ahead of what is supposed to be a tense Soweto derby against Orlando Pirates.
On a good night, the billowing smoke from the cigar bar sends a message to anyone who cares to note that things have changed in this country.
These blacks are not emerging anythings. They are already here, and when next the stories of how the rich live feature, it will be their tales being told.
Their obvious affluence and consumption is an emphatic and unapologetic statement that these natives, or those they know and grew up with, never struggled to be poor.
Look how we’ve grown
— Compiled by Thebe Mabanga
Black middle-class spending power
Many sectors of the economy have benefited from increased black spending power
Clothing, furniture and food
- Clothing retailers have experienced sales growth of between 15% and 25% per annum, much of it anecdotally attributed to the black middle class.
- The black population’s increase in purchase of furniture in 2004 was about 76% compared to 40% for the rest of the market.
- Food retailers have witnessed the migration of members of the black middle class to stores such as Pick ’n Pay and more upmarket Woolworths.
Motor vehicles
- Imperial estimates that, in 1996, blacks accounted for 5% of imported vehicles. Last year they accounted for 30%. The licensing department estimates that in 2004 blacks owned 31% of licensed vehicles, up from 10% in 1990.
- Wesbank, market leader in vehicle finance, has seen loans made to black consumers shoot up from 7% in 1994 to 17% in 2004.
Property
Banks
Insurance
Telecoms
Between 2001 and 2004, cellphone usage increased by 81%, or 16% a year. Usage by blacks over the same period increased by 129%, or 23% a year annum. — Source: Merrill Lynch