The "Coloured" Community in Post-Apartheid Gauteng
This project aims to explore the history and current realities of the “Coloured”1 community in Gauteng. It brings together academic and community voices to better understand the complex social, economic, political and spatial issues affecting the community. Coloured people in Gauteng face unique challenges shaped by historical legacies. By focusing on their realities, this project aims to fill a significant knowledge gap, as this population is often overlooked in research.
This project aims to amplify the voices and experiences of Coloured individuals and communities, paint a holistic picture of Coloured experiences in Gauteng, and produce original academic and creative outputs.
This project is led by the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) with support from external scholars. To ensure the community's voices are heard, we are encouraging active participation.
Research will be conducted through an extensive review of both academic and popular literature, as well as a combination of qualitative and quantitative research. This will include interviews, focus groups, data and spatial analyses, media analyses and analyses of voting patterns.
If you would like to collaborate or contribute to this project, please contact Shamsunisaa Miles-Timotheus at shamsunisaa.miles-timotheus@gcro.ac.za
1 The term “Coloured” is placed in quotation marks to acknowledge its contested nature. While it remains an official racial classification in South Africa and is used in policy, demographic data and everyday discourse, it is not a universally accepted label. Quotation marks signal critical distance and sensitivity to the complex debates surrounding the term.
Call for Written Pieces Competition
As part of the project, a call for written submissions invited individuals to share their thoughts, opinions and feelings about the Coloured community in Gauteng. The aim of this competition was to amplify the voices of people living in South Africa who may not always have the opportunity or platform to have their writing reach a wider audience.
The competition officially opened on 4 July 2025 and remained open until 26 September 2025. Submissions were invited in the form of poems, essays, stories or personal reflections. In total, 101 submissions were received. From these, the selection panel embarked on the difficult task of selecting the top 25 pieces.
The process of writing one’s own story, or documenting the stories of others, is an important act of preservation. Too often, experiences and reflections are not passed down through the generations and may be lost over time. Writing offers a way to capture these moments, ensuring that they can be shared and reflected upon in the future.
We are immensely grateful to the individuals who took the time to write and submit their work. By sharing their voices and experiences, contributors have helped create a collection reflecting a diversity of perspectives.
Outputs
Arends, S., Arendse, D. E., Botes, T. B., Cockrell, D., Crisp, T., Dearham, K. E., Emecheta, C., Fisher, C., Hermans, C., Jacobs, P., Julius, C., Louw, A., Mhlanga, K., Modise, R., Mooi, A., Petersen, T., Prokopis, T., Ramsamy, L., Scheepers, M., Smith, A., Wangra, R., Watson, J., & Zulu, N. (2026). Awe! The "Coloured" community in post-apartheid Gauteng: Winners of the 2025 written pieces competition. Johannesburg: Gauteng City Region Observatory
Media
Shamsunisaa Miles-Timotheus, GCRO's Junior Researcher, interviewed in 'Silenced & struggling: Gauteng’s Coloured community speaks out', Channel Africa. 17 October 2025
Rashid Seedat, Shannon Whitaker, and Shamsunisaa Miles-Timotheus (2025). 'Gauteng’s ‘Coloured’ community feels unsafe: who they are and why they’re discouraged'. The Conversation, 9 October 2025.
Shamsunisaa Miles-Timotheus, GCRO's Junior Researcher, interviewed in 'The Coloured Community in Post-Apartheid South Africa', Power FM. 18 August 2025.
Shamsunisaa Miles-Timotheus, GCRO's Junior Researcher, interviewed in 'Written pieces on coloured community in post-apartheid Gauteng competition', VOW FM 88.1. 14 August 2025.
Last updated: 21 May 2026.
