While South Africa's black middle class is growing, so too are the ranks of the country's poor, the SA Institute of Race Relations said on Tuesday.
"Increases (in levels of inequality) were most dramatic for the African population, which saw levels... rise by 21 percent... since 1996," the institute said in a statement issued to mark the publication of its annual South Africa Survey.
Such growing inequality was in part an indication of the growth of a black middle class.
Of concern, however, was that "such growth has been accompanied by an increase in poverty among the lowest income groups".
The survey showed the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day - the measure of absolute poverty - had more than doubled since 1994.
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"Using a different measure of poverty, 50 percent of South African households lived on less than R2 899 per month for a household of eight in 2004, up from 40 percent in 1994."
According to the statement, the survey's figures showed that while progress was being made in the upper and middle classes of South Africa's society, "the poor were being left behind". - Sapa
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