Research by the United Nations University has laid bare the inequality that exists in South Africa, with just 3500 people said to own more wealth than 32 million South Africans combined.
The working paper compiled by Aroop Chatterjee, Léo Czajka, and Amory Gethin found that despite having a progressive constitution and policy mandate, South Africa’s post-apartheid democratic society has reproduced inequality along the same lines.
“The top 1 per cent of the South African adult population (350,000 individuals) own 55 per cent of aggregate personal wealth, and the top 0.1 per cent alone (35,000 individuals) own almost one-third of wealth,” reads the report.
“The top 0.01 per cent of the distribution, amounting to some 3,500 individuals, own about 15 per cent of household wealth, greater than the share of wealth owned by the bottom 90 per cent of the population, consisting of 32 million individuals.”
South Africa is notoriously known as one of the most unequal societies in the world – a fact that has been further exposed by the current COVID-19 pandemic.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, in his message to the nation yesterday, as the country observed Freedom Day, said the legacy of apartheid was still pervasive in the country.
“Poverty and inequality continues to stalk our land. A child born to parents of means has a comfortable home, is fed and sheltered, receives a good education and has good prospects for a prosperous life,” Ramaphosa said.
“For a poor child, every day of life can be a struggle for shelter, for food and for opportunity. For such a child, their chances of finishing school, of studying further, of gaining useful skills and of finding a job are much smaller.”
