ABSTRACTIn the course of the 1980s a number of changes took place in the organization of South African cities, leading to the concept of ‘modernizing’ apartheid. Relaxation of laws and the publicized responses to racial integration in a few localities encouraged the concept of a breakdown of residential barriers. However, an examination of the 1991 census suggests not only that segregation levels are remarkably high, but also that they rose in the period between 1985 and 1991. The White population in particular remains highly segregated from the remainder. There is nevertheless a number of significant regional differences, indicating that urban restructuring was not uniform. The late‐apartheid city thus appears little changed from its predec