South Africa today celebrates twenty six years since the birth of democracy. While huge strides have been made in terms of progress, a large number of the nation remains gripped by poverty, and inequality has progressed ever since the end of Apartheid.
For decades prior to the historic 1994 elections, non-White South Africans faced discrimination on the basis of their background and had little opportunity.
Today, South Africa still faces many challenges as a result of destructive Apartheid policy. Unemployment, poverty, inequality and a lack of adequate service delivery are major issues that are yet to be addressed. Assessing how far South Africa has come since the dawn of democracy, lead researcher at the Bench Mark's Foundation David Van Wyk said that a major contributory factor to the challenges of poverty and inequality is the fact that the economy was not restructured after Apartheid. "The structural nature of the economy was not addressed. Today, the economy is still largely owned by a minority." He said that not having economic power has prevented South Africa from addressing key issues like unemployment poverty and inequality. At present, South Africa stands as the world's most unequal society with economic fortunes of the poorest South Africans being comparable to those of the most impoverished people in Burundi, while the richest can be compared to Belgium’s richest. Recent research by Stellenbosch University economist Anna Orthofer reveals that the wealthiest 1% owns 67% of all the country’s wealth. The top 10% owns 93%. The remaining 90% of South Africa owns a mere 7% of the country’s wealth. Land reform policies - aimed at reversing apartheid era land distribution that favored Whites - have enjoyed little progress and the recently proposed expropriation without compensation has sparked huge anger and criticism from the predominantly-White farming community. There have been positive changes, however. According to a government performance review, just 50.9 percent of South African households had access to electricity in 1994/5. By 2012, as Statistics South Africa’s general household survey found, that figure had rocketed to 85.3 percent. In terms of corruption, South Africa ranked 21st of 42 countries on Transparency International's corruptions perceptions index in 1995. South Africa ranked 73rd out of 180 countries that participated in the survey in 2019. The World Bank produces annual worldwide governance indicators. In 2012, South Africa’s control of corruption was ranked 113th out of 210 countries. Like David Van Wyk, former anti-Apartheid activist Omar Badsha believes that the country faces many challenges despite twenty more than two decades having passed since the end of Apartheid. He also warned that such issues are a threat to South Africa's future. "Inequality and poverty is the condition of a large part of our society. Unless we address these issues, nobody's future is guaranteed." Apart from economic woes facing the country, Van Wyk believes that public participation in activism has also dwindled despite there being more freedom to do so than there was under Apartheid. He said: "The environment is much more free than it was under Apartheid. It's easier to organize, criticize and air your views now but nobody is doing it." He said that what now needs to be done is to "rebuild participatory democracy rather than just [having] representative democracy." "People should actually organize around the key issues that are confronting us: inequality, landlessness, corruption, service delivery and so on." However, Badsha believes that people have become active in bettering their communities. "People have taken back many communities. They are organizing and feeding people, housing people [and] fighting against evictions." He also believes that we "can come up with new solutions" if the nation builds human solidarity." Listen to the full discussion here:
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AuthorZahid Jadwat is a South African writer, columnist, podcaster and radio show host. Archives
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