It is a well-balanced analysis, based on detailed statistics, of the process of social change in South Africa since the first democratic elections in the country in 1994. Some of its main findings may help explain the upsurge of strikes and demonstrations in the country, particularly by public sector workers, earlier this year. Here's a summary:
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A slight but significant decline in African poverty is occurring, due largely to the expansion of social grants.
There is a modest but significant expansion of the numbers of Africans in the “not so poor” category of R1 400 to R4 000 per month.
Abject or severe poverty among coloured people is roughly half of what it is among Africans.
Abject or severe poverty affects less than 10 per cent of Indians and less than 5 per cent of whites.
The “lower middle class” among Africans (R4 000 — R12 000 per month) has not expanded over the two years.
A barely discernable expansion of the more wealthy categories among Africans has occurred.
The expansion of the categories of relative wealth of R12 000 and more per month has been more rapid among coloured people, Indians and even among whites than it has been among Africans.
These results tell us that most of the stereotypes and loose impressions about a burgeoning new middle class floating around in popular debate are generally gross exaggerations. The reality is rather bad news for those who are committed to rapid or quick fix transformation. The really good news is that deep poverty is not increasing as many people fear. The extension of social grants has indeed stopped the socio-economic rot at the lower levels of livelihoods. However, the ongoing celebration of “empowerment” and with it, quick and easy wealth, may have serious implications. Revolutions of rising expectations have the potential to tear societies apart. The recent concern expressed in government about elite empowerment comes not a moment too soon. But government itself has to think about the contradictions within its own policies.
*(… and how I missed then the times, years back, when I would go on my own “fact-finding missions” all over Jo’burg… when I took these pictures in Soweto…)
A slight but significant decline in African poverty is occurring, due largely to the expansion of social grants.
There is a modest but significant expansion of the numbers of Africans in the “not so poor” category of R1 400 to R4 000 per month.
Abject or severe poverty among coloured people is roughly half of what it is among Africans.
Abject or severe poverty affects less than 10 per cent of Indians and less than 5 per cent of whites.
The “lower middle class” among Africans (R4 000 — R12 000 per month) has not expanded over the two years.
A barely discernable expansion of the more wealthy categories among Africans has occurred.
The expansion of the categories of relative wealth of R12 000 and more per month has been more rapid among coloured people, Indians and even among whites than it has been among Africans.
These results tell us that most of the stereotypes and loose impressions about a burgeoning new middle class floating around in popular debate are generally gross exaggerations. The reality is rather bad news for those who are committed to rapid or quick fix transformation. The really good news is that deep poverty is not increasing as many people fear. The extension of social grants has indeed stopped the socio-economic rot at the lower levels of livelihoods. However, the ongoing celebration of “empowerment” and with it, quick and easy wealth, may have serious implications. Revolutions of rising expectations have the potential to tear societies apart. The recent concern expressed in government about elite empowerment comes not a moment too soon. But government itself has to think about the contradictions within its own policies.
*(… and how I missed then the times, years back, when I would go on my own “fact-finding missions” all over Jo’burg… when I took these pictures in Soweto…)
2 comments:
Koluki,
It would be interesting to find out to what extent the black population with a higher degree has benefited with the changing dynamics in the country vis-à-vis the not so well educated...
Just wondering to what extent race is really an "issue" here...
Luis,
Thanks for the comment.
Let's just say that what would really be a case to wonder would be to find, merely 10 years into its post-apartheid era, that race was no longer an "issue" in South Africa...
To start with, race, in this report and in all serious socio-economic analysis (unlike much of what we can find in 'studies' coming from the lusophone world... sorry, but that's a fact... and you know it as well as I do...) is not merely a "genetic" category, but a sociological variable... Now, you can guess where this thread would lead us, so let's leave it at that for the moment.
Then, let's say that the minute group of Black graduates/qualified professionals were all absorbed by the first wave of "affirmative action" in the period 1993-2002... After which we need to understand that race, as a central class structure variable in SAn society (not just there, but that's the case at hand here) pervades all aspects of an individual's life and access to qualified/well paid jobs is just the final step of a life-long process, and remember that higher education was far from widely accessible to the Black population during the apartheid years... and that, just to give a pointing example of what they were "reserved" (in the literary sense of the word and beyond) with, the so-called "Bantu education system" against which Soweto Black students so dramatically rebelled against in 1976 didn't include such disciplines as natural sciences or mathematics, beyond the most basic rudiments.
Now, make what you like out of this...
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