by Alex Tours

Created on: April 16, 2008

Many people of a "certain age" like myself still have vivid memories of the deep divisions caused by the apartheid regime in South Africa. These divisions, based on race, ran deep, leaving a privileged and prosperous white ruling class and an embittered underclass, the "non-whites", living in poverty and fear.

It is to South Africa's credit, then, that the country has not exploded into violence and disorder since the granting of democracy in 1994 and the ascension to power of the African National Congress (ANC) government under Nelson Mandela. The effective handing over of power by the last white leader, the visionary de Klerk, and Mandela's policy of reconciliation rather than confrontation with the whites were instrumental in ensuring a peaceful transition to majority rule and provide a wonderful example of strong leadership to our troubled world.

Whilst human rights benefited almost immediately in 1994, majority rule was not an immediate panacea for the country's deep economic inequalities and, fourteen years on, South Africa is still on the road to narrowing the gaps.

On a global scale, pervasive poverty and inequality characterize South Africa. Using internationally accepted definitions of poverty, 40% of the population of about 45 million live in poverty with about 15% actually struggling to survive. This statistic on absolute poverty, however, hides the inequality that still exists in the country.

The "Gini coefficient" is the international standard for monitoring inequality: it ranges between 0 for a perfect, pro-rata distribution of wealth to 1 for the greatest inequality. On this scale, South Africa as a nation measures 0.6, the only other country with a comparably bad score being Brazil (more than 0.5) - "good" nations score around 0.25. Worryingly, however, the South African score of 0.6 hides the deeper inequality that has developed amongst the non-white population since 1994 - the onset of democratic majority rule has meant that many non-whites have begun to do well for themselves, much more so than under the apartheid regime, whilst many more still languish in the desperate conditions they experienced before.

This is perhaps not surprising: given the country's starting point and the fact that the policies of the ANC have been one of reconciliation with the white people rather than more revolutionary policies: deep inequalities take time to resolve.

The danger is, of course, that social stability is at risk from the inequality that remains and continued strong government is needed to not only maintain the peace but produce economic policies that will help those in poverty.

The ANC government has had some success in creating new jobs. 1.6 million sustainable jobs were created between 1995 and 2002 and the Extended Public Works Program has created more since. However, the initial policies to address inequality have been superseded by others, such as the Growth, Employment, and Redistribution Program (GEAR). This program has focused on a few black entrepreneurs who have become millionaires and billionaires overnight, thus contributing to inequality, with the overall result that the Gini index has shown an upward trend since 1994.

Internal rifts have recently begun to surface within the ruling ANC, old rivalries rearing their head, leading to inter-party political conflict. One can only hope that these issues are resolved and that successful policies are soon implemented to address South Africa's inequalities and the poverty of many of its people, lest this beautiful country should fall into the same sorry state as its neighbor, Zimbabwe.

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