CPRC South Africa

Introduction to chronic poverty in South Africa

South Africa is a middle income country of 44 million people. However, despite a per capita GDP of over $11,000, it scores lower on the UN’s Human Development Index than Bolivia (UNDP 2006). This is an indication of the extent to which the development in the 20th century of an internationally-integrated modern economy, delivering a high standard of living to the white minority, was achieved at the expense of massive upheaval and impoverishment of the black African majority population. It also suggests that the post-apartheid government has struggled with the multiple legacies of this history, coupled with new challenges such as the onset of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The apartheid system perpetuated racially-based inequality and made the chronic poverty experienced by millions of South Africans an important issue in the anti-apartheid struggle. Following the formal end of apartheid in 1990 and the first democratic elections in 1994, the ANC government has begun to reverse decades of underinvestment and oppression of the majority of the population. Membership of the elite of society has become more diverse, and overall access to public services has improved, yet many people remain trapped in chronic poverty.

Although national panel data for South Africa as a whole is not yet available, CPRC research in 2001 (Aliber 2001) suggested  that nearly a quarter of all South African households are likely to be chronically poor, and that 70% of all poor people live in rural areas. Individuals, households and groups who are particularly likely to suffer chronic poverty include those living in marginal rural areas and urban ghettos, farm workers and other people in insecure or low-paid employment, the disabled and elderly, HIV/AIDS sufferers, child-headed ‘households’, the displaced and refugees, and people subject to exploitative relationships within the mainstream economy.