Despite relative strong economic growth, income poverty is still on the increase in South Africa. This is not only the case for the poor provinces, but also for the richer ones:
In 1996, some 1,9-million South Africans survived on less than one US dollar per day. This had increased to 4,2-million by 2005.
The Western Cape had the smallest percentage of its population living on less then a dollar a day -- however this percentage had doubled between 1996 and 2005. The only other province which had less than 5% of its population living in poverty was Gauteng. Poverty in the province, considered the country's economic powerhouse, also increased substantially from 1% in 1996 to 3,5% in 2005.
Do we need more economic growth or more direct anti-poverty measures?
See http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/&articleid=324695&referrer=RSS
No comments:
Post a Comment