17 November 2019
Statistics SA (Stats SA) this week revealed that the wage gap between races in the country increased between 2011 and 2015.
Statistician-general Risenga Maluleke said white South Africans earned three times more than blacks on average and noted, disconcertingly, that households headed by blacks and coloureds were “chronically” poor.
As the celebrations of the Springbok’s World Cup victory end – the fanfare which we used to remind ourselves of our need for unity, reconciliation and common destiny – Stats SA brought us a chilling reminder of our economic and racial fault lines.
It has been proven worldwide that inequality – especially occurring in an ailing economy – is divisive and breeds an environment for nationalism that breaks the back of cohesion in many a society. South Africa is not immune to this phenomenon.
It is an indictment on the part of the ANC government and the private sector that 25 years into our democratic dispensation our income earnings remain “heavily racialised”, as Stats SA noted. It is not surprising, though. In August, the Commission for Employment Equity report for 2018 showed that top, senior and professional ranks were still dominated by white males and that there has been little movement in the past three years.
This comes against the backdrop of the highest unemployment rate (29%) since 2008.
The extreme inequality – the highest in the world – occasioned by income imbalance and the stubborn unemployment, are a ticking time bomb waiting to explode into more racial tensions, the rise of populism in our politics and social instability.
Soccer blackout sad tale for poor
The television blackout of the Bafana Bafana match against Ghana is another sad but real indictment on the part of soccer leaders on the African continent.
Only a chosen few, with deep pockets, could afford the live streaming of the match.
MultiChoice’s SuperSport could not broadcast one of the most important matches on our football calendar, Africa Nations Cup tie on Thursday night because of a fallout between the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and the French holders of the television rights, Legerdere.
African leaders, in this case our football head honchos, refuse to shed the colonial mentality. We still need Europeans to dictate to us how to run our businesses. We still need their consent on how and when we should play and watch sport, yet we say we are independent from colonial rule.
It remains to be seen how long the football blackout will last, considering that South Africans are also keen on following Mamelodi Sundowns, who will resume their CAF Champions League group-stage campaign later this month
