Validation of an existing racial and ethnic microaggressions scale within the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality in South Africa

Abstract

The local government workplace in post-apartheid South Africa represents an important environment to examine employee perceptions on the occurrence of microaggressions. However, since the advent of democracy in 1994, the country has faced numerous challenges in its quest for the implementation of rights pertaining to unity, diversity, inclusion and non-racialism. The main struggle is for the country to create an inclusive workforce that responds to fundamental rights enshrined in the preamble of the Constitution of 1996 which stipulates: ‘we are united in our diversity’. This article intends to assess microaggressions and social cohesion at the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality (CTMM) in order to find out whether the Microaggressions Theory developed in the field of psychology in the United States of America (US) could be applied in the field of public administration in South Africa. The aim is to determine whether subtle forms of negative behaviour or environmental indignities contribute to perceptions of enduring racism and discrimination in a diverse workplace. A mixed methods approach was followed. The reliability and validity of an existing questionnaire, developed in the US by a psychologist, were tested in the CTMM. The statistical relationship between types of racial microaggressions and social cohesion, which forms part of the South African government's policies towards enhancing race relations in the country, was also measured. Results indicated that the Microaggressions Theory can be applied in the field of public administration in South Africa.