The ‘new South Africa’ emerged after centuries of violent imposition of white rule, which became increasingly vicious as the 20th century wore on. People of all races – though primarily Africans – were physically and psychologically scarred by the past, and many still carry psychological ‘baggage’ with them. So while we have found that the majority of citizens are enjoying high quality of life in the GCR, we deliberately went on to look for the clustering of psycho-social challenges that can lead to marginalisation.

We used a multivariate statistical analysis – with 28 variables from the ‘Quality of Life' survey, many of which also appear in the broader ‘Quality of Life’ index – to focus on who was doing well, and who less so, in the GCR – and to see whether there exists a group of people who are pushed from the centre to the margins of the GCR.

• relationships
• housing
• connectivity
• crime/safety
• participation
• health
• hunger
• alienation/ extreme views
• government
• life satisfaction.