The Statistician-General has laid bare South Africa’s harsh reality of worsening poverty, unemployment and inequality.
After making headway in reducing poverty between 2006 and 2013, we have now gone back. More than half the people in our free and democratic nation, about 30 million, were living below the upper poverty line of R992 a month in 2015. A third was surviving on less than R797.
The situation has worsened with black Africans and women at the bottom of the heap of deprivation.
There can be no debate that we have a serious and deepening crisis. Nor can any right-thinking person who loves this beautiful country – which is rich in natural resources and has a modern infrastructure with a talented, mainly young population – deny such figures spell disaster for the sustainability of our peaceful, democratic order.
We are moving further away from, instead of edging closer to, the prosperous, truly democratic and just South Africa described in our constitution. And if we carry on like this, we’re sitting on the time bomb many of our leaders have warned about for years.
Clearly, the three problems of poverty, unemployment and inequality are stubborn and will take time and hard work to root out. Indeed, these related problems exist almost everywhere, even in developed countries.
As could be expected, fingers are pointing mostly at our government for failing to come up with policies and take steps to help our people climb out of a life of constant penury.
In turn, leaders blame the global headwinds that keep buffeting our economy. And leaders and owners of big business and organised labour have not escaped blame for putting profits before all else and standing in the way of progress.
There are differences of opinion as to how each of the key stakeholders and citizens in general should respond to the triple crisis. The undeniable truth, though, is that this situation is totally unnatural and unacceptable for a rich and highly developed economy like ours.
Promising initiatives have been started to turn things around.
Key among these are the government’s social security measures and the recent national minimum wage initiative. We also have the the National Development Plan, which is yet to be implemented.
There are no clear answers or quick fixes. All we can do is urge all to do what we can and remain resolute and focused on our ultimate goal.