OPINION: While many of today’s inequalities are rooted in a white-supremacist past, it is current legislation that allows these disparities to grow.
By Alex Hefel
As I write, I sit at a small café in the city of Umhlanga, a residential area north of Durban. Looking across the street, I can see nothing but beautiful houses and high-end shops where customers (a majority white) search for their next purchase.
Pitchers of iced water with lemon are placed at each table to quench the thirsts from the sweltering heat. As I drink, I cannot help but feel a sense of guilt as I draw parallels between my time here and that of my homestay.
One would think that a highly affluent neighbourhood such as this would suggest a similar story for the rest of Durban; however, that is not the case.
Not far away is Cato Manor, the township where I stay. An area filled with deteriorating shacks, a shortage of basic facilities, and not a white person in sight.
It is quite the contrast from that of Umhlanga – two completely different worlds cast in the mould of apartheid. Racial segregation may be over with procedurally, but its effects still leave a drastic mark on society.
Economic inequality in South Africa is of the highest in the world with a GINI coefficient of 68, zero being absolute equality and one hundred being absolute inequality (“Poverty Trends”).
More than half of the population is impoverished, and the unemployment rate remains at 35% (“South Africa”).
Anger and hopelessness are rising in the black community with the realisation that while apartheid may be over, nothing is really changing.
Talking to an elderly resident of Durban, he told me about the promises that were made in 1994 to assure voters. In effect, they were promised a government where blacks regain control and the effects of inequality dissipate as a new order commences.
While blacks may now have the power, it is minimised by staggering levels of corruption and an economy that never left the hands of white people.
Inequality in South Africa is an issue deeply ingrained in inter-racial conflict: whites vs blacks.
And while race is an obvious source of such inequality, it begs to question the other factors that continue to be responsible for the never-ending disparities seen today.
Inequality may have been a simple black and white issue in the past, but things are more complicated now. It may be helpful to look not only at inter-racial inequality but intra-racial inequality as well.
According to recent studies, the GINI coefficient among blacks is 65 which is only marginally smaller than the national income gap (“Poverty Trends”). This shows that while between-race inequality is high, there is a large gap among the black population as well.
The percentage of black South Africans in the top 10% has increased from 13.87% in 1993 to 30.79% in 2008 (Finn).
As stated in a 2018 report by the World Bank, “rising black per capita incomes over the past three decades have narrowed the interracial income gap, although increasing inequality within the black population” has “prevented any decline in total inequality” (World Bank).
It is important to examine why certain “black elites” have been able to amass such a large share of wealth while another 64% live in poverty (Bailey).
Since 1994, the ANC has made Black Economic Empowerment (Saba) a part of its fundamental policy ideas.
While it was meant to assist in broader participation in the economy by black people, it has faced criticism for failing to improve a majority of black South African’s livelihoods.
Instead, its policies benefited a small portion of individuals to a large degree and helped led to the inequality we see today.
South African policies continue to benefit the rich and extend the income gap between and within races. The value-added tax (VAT) is an example of this as it hurts the poor more than it does the rich.
Lower-income households spend a greater percentage of their income on consumption; therefore, the tax burden relative to income is greater compared to that of higher-income households.
This is an issue not only between blacks and whites but the division of rich and poor as well.
While many of today’s inequalities are rooted in a white-supremacist past, it is current legislation that allows these disparities to grow.
The current system benefits the elite at the expense of the poor and widens the wealth gap to an inconceivable extent. If inequality is going to be addressed, legislation is going to need to focus not only on race but class as well.
*Alex Hefel is currently in SA on a study abroad program hosted by SIT (School for International Training). He is studying Social and Political Transformation.
** The views expressed here may not necessarily be that of IOL.