South Africa Poverty Survey Shows Slow Progress

By Alex Crawford, Special Correspondent, in Johnnesburg

A government study has shown more than half of the people in South Africa live in poverty.

The survey, which is the latest to be conducted by the government's statistics agency but dates back to 2009, shows that South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world.

And the first census done in a decade indicates that white South Africans still take home six times more pay than their black compatriots - nearly two decades after the end of apartheid.

The reports come at a difficult time for the South African president, Jacob Zuma, who is fighting to be re-elected as leader of the ruling ANC party.

The outcome of that vote will determine who leads the party into the next election - and therefore who'll likely be the South African president until 2019.

The reports show the country's black middle class is growing fast. It's now the same size as the white South African middle class, helped by the country's employment laws which were drawn up to redress decades of inequality and unfairness by previous white regimes.

A protest in Cape Town in August against the government

But a report by Statistics South Africa shows two-thirds of the country's youth live in poor households which have a per capita income of less than 650 rand a month (around £47).

Mr Zuma applauded the results of the census which indicates that the numbers of those living without basic amenities has been halved. The incomes of black households have increased by 169% over the past 10 years. But he conceded the country had a long way to go.

For Seth Maggagane, who lives in the township of Alexandra in Johannesburg, progress can't come soon enough. He has been in the same one-room shed for the bulk of the post-apartheid years.

Here he fends off rats during the night and works as a gardener to try to support his family living miles away in Petersburg.

"The rats come and bite us at night. Even I have been bitten here," he says, gesturing towards his bed which takes up most of the room of his home.

President Zuma is fighting for re-election as leader of the ANC

He has been supplementing his income by catching rats and handing them into Lifeline, a charity which has started an initiative to try to crackdown on the rat problem in Alexandra. For every 60 rats that Seth can catch, he will be given a free mobile phone. He's on his second so far. Not as good as Peter Kapolo who is on his third and has brought in 93 rats in a single day.

It's a world away from Dainfern and the life of Puleng Mash-Spies, who recently shot to fame when she appeared on the popular television programme Come Dine With Me South Africa.

Despite coming from Sebokeng township and witnessing a 'necklace' murder when she was nine, she now runs her own beauty business with all the comforts of a very wealthy woman including Christian Louboutin shoes and a diamond in her front tooth.

But she is extremely critical of the slow pace of change in the country for the millions of her fellow black South Africans.

"It didn't come easy and I wasn't lucky. My parents worked hard for me to become the woman that I am today. That's why for me Sebokeng is so touchy. And I do feel bad for those who are still there," she says with tears running down her cheeks.

"But I'm glad now they can't see the things that I saw. I was only nine …

"The ANC did some good things but now they are losing the plot. We don't want to go back there. I don't want my kids, my family to go back and see what I saw. If we don't change things in South Africa, we will go back there."

She means that the growing feelings of discontent against the country's leaders, against those who have such a lot while so many have so little, will lead to even greater outpourings of dissatisfaction than already seen in the country.

The deputy president, Kgalema Motlanthe, who is challenging Mr Zuma for the ANC leadership, has said South Africa is at "tipping point" after the deaths of 34 miners shot by police during violent strikes at the country's mines.

Mr Zuma has denied that is the case - but there are plenty in the country who would disagree with him.

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