Belonging, Dignity and Second-Class Citizenship: Perceptions of Race-Based Redress Among White South African Workers and Business Owners

Introduction: Race-based redress remains central to post-apartheid transformation, yet its implications for White workers’ and business owners’ belonging, dignity and perceived citizenship remain insufficiently integrated across the available evidence. The supplied literature describes both continuing structural inequality and contested workplace experiences of Employment Equity, Affirmative Action and Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE). Methods: The researcher selected Google Scholar, ERIC, OpenAlex, and Crossref as databases and information sources. The eligibility protocol restricted publication years to 2000–2026. COSTAQDA recorded source-level retrieval through OpenAlex (75 retrieved; 3305 available), Crossref (75 retrieved; 842 available). Where researcher-selected sources did not expose a suitable direct bulk-search connector, COSTAQDA used its OpenAlex/Crossref discovery bridge while preserving the researcher-selected source names in the PRISMA record. The identification run recorded 150 records before cross-source deduplication and 150 unique records after deduplication. Results: White employees’ accounts commonly associated Employment Equity with unfair treatment, restricted advancement, threatened belonging and concerns about merit, competence and dignity. Acceptance of redress was conditional rather than absent: participants could recognise historical inequality while rejecting opaque criteria, tokenism or perceived preferential treatment. Across the wider evidence base, formal compliance frequently coexisted with uneven communication, limited consultation and slow transformation. Conversely, training, support, autonomy, respect, employee participation and visible managerial commitment were described as enabling conditions. Evidence directly addressing White business owners and second-class citizenship was limited. Discussion/Conclusion: Race-based redress is experienced through the institutional conditions and interpersonal processes surrounding implementation, not only through policy design. The review supports neither a generalised claim that White South Africans experience institutional second-class citizenship nor a conclusion that redress is uniformly ineffective.