DEVELOPMENT: Inequality Remains a Thorn in South Africa’s Side

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

JOHANNESBURG, May 5 2004 (IPS) - South Africa will not succeed in reducing unemployment and poverty if it fails to carry out drastic economic and social reforms, a leading trade unionist in the country has warned.

Zwelinzima Vavi, General Secretary of the 1.8 million-member Confederation of South African Trade Unions, said empowering the nation’s majority blacks – who were disenfranchised by apartheid – was central to helping it attain the millennium development goal (MDG) of halving poverty by 2015. The eight MDGs were agreed on by global leaders at the United Nations in New York, in 2000.

Vavi made the comments at the launch of the ‘South Africa Human Development Report 2003′, in Johannesburg on Wednesday (May 5). The document was prepared by the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

Addressing those present at the launch, John Ohiorhenuan, the UNDP’s representative in South Africa, said “absolute poverty (in the country) has declined significantly, with the percentage of people living below the national poverty line (of 52 dollars per month) falling from 51.1 percent in 1995 to 48.5 percent in 2002.”

“However, the number of South Africans living below the poverty line of 454 rand (52 dollars) in 2002 was still almost half of the total population,” he added.

What worries the United Nations most, though, is growing inequality in the country.

“South Africa continues to be one of the most unequal societies globally. Significantly, inequality has worsened within all racial classifications in South Africa, but comparatively less so within the white group,” Ohiorhenuan observed.

“The average income in 2001 of a white household was six times that of an African household,” he told the audience.

Between 1995 and 2002, the official unemployment rate increased from 16.4 percent to 30.5 percent. Among black people, unemployment in 2002 was 36.8 percent, compared to 14.1 for other race groups. In addition, unemployment among women was 35 percent compared to 27 percent for males, says the 294-page UNDP report.

“Most worrying perhaps, is the vicious circle of poverty, inequality and unemployment in South Africa. For instance, a large majority of households who are poor are those who do not have even one working person,” Ohiorhenuan noted.

Yasmin Sooka, Director of the Foundation for Human Rights, a non- governmental organisation which is based in the capital, Pretoria, called for a restructuring of South African society. “We live in a country where one group is fabulously rich and one group lives in extreme poverty,” she said.

Given the high percentage of the population living below the poverty line, the report argues that South Africa’s social assistance system of grants can play an important role in the country.

But, it adds, only about 30 percent of the poor were eligible for receiving government grants in 2002. This implies that, even if there was a full take-up of grants, more than 15 million people still fell outside the social security support system.

“Thus, the current social assistance system of grants in South Africa has limited impact on reducing poverty. The system is not designed to lift all or the majority of the poor out of poverty. Nor is it appropriately financed to achieve such an objective, with the result that it is able to target only a fraction of the poor,” the report says.

It urged the South African government to prioritise the needs of people without any income or with insufficient income.

This, says the report, implies the extension of the child support programme to poor children from nine to 18 years. It also implies the extension of the social security system to provide income support to poor adults.

Vavi said COSATU was encouraged by the extent to which the UNDP report exposed the inequalities in South Africa’s society. “These inequalities have stubbornly remained part of our social and political life,” he told those at the launch.