Concerned Citizens: Infographic, Narrative & Methodology

Last month, we shared and unpacked the profile of the Independent Humanists. This month, their splinter group, the Concerned Citizens, will be explored. Concerned Citizens are very worried about South Africa’s inequality, the country’s state of affairs, the efficacy of the government and the direction that the country is going due to poor governance.

Although this group is concerned about inequality, like the Independent Humanists, they value their power to act as individuals, independent of group trends. Therefore, Concerned Citizens are somewhat more individualistic, do not easily identify with mass movements, and show little support for sport. The latter fact makes them unique in a country where sport enjoys wide and passionate public support.

Concerned Citizens’ national pride is driven by their love of South Africa’s diverse cultures, races and backgrounds. Concerned Citizens love of South Africa’s diversity extends to foreigners and immigrants. Attacks on foreign nationals are regarded as isolated incidents, but it is noteworthy that this group identifies with- and has empathy towards immigrants due a shared experience of feeling marginalised.

The Concerned Citizens are regarded as a splinter group of the Independent Humanists, but an important distinction between the two is that Independent Humanists display a strikingly higher sense of national pride with 76% who expressed they are proudly South African, compared to 41% of the Concerned Citizens.

Although, Concerned Citizens are not actively involved in their communities, they strategically target their support towards specific, dedicated groups (e.g. Stokvels) and family members. Like the Independent Humanists group, Concern Citizens low levels of community activism does not amount to apathy or a lack of care for others. In fact, deep love and care for others is a strong feature of this group. Despite their sense of marginalisation, Concerned Citizens display strength in their willingness to make ends meet for themselves and others, without having to rely on the government. The latter factor once again underlines the fact that this group tends to believe in the power of individual action rather than becoming reliant on mass movements or the state. Concerned Citizens make up 11% of the South African population. 52% of this group is based in Gauteng and 57% of this group resides in urban areas. The dominant age groups include those between 25-34 years of age and 45+ years of age, who make up 34% and 33% of this group respectively. 81% of Concerned Citizens hold a matric certificate, but a very small portion are in primary or secondary schooling (9%) or hold a post-matric qualification (10%). 43% of this group is employed and this group contains a slightly higher representation of informal workers than other behavioural groups. Black people make up 90% of the Concerned Citizens, followed by 5% who are Coloured, 3% who are White and 1% who are Indian. This group is slightly overrepresented by women who make up 54% of this group.

Behavioural Group Research Methodology