Poverty declining in SA

[Djtay]

Cape Town - South Africa has reduced the number of people living in poverty, but retains an "unacceptable" gap between rich and poor, according to a development report released on Friday.

The Development Indicators report showed the income of South Africa's poor rose from R783 to R1 041 a month, with a significant shift of people from the lower to middle classes.

"The change out of extreme poverty is occurring, there are still too many people there but there is a shift out of that," Ronette Engela of the presidential policy unit told journalists.

"The improvement in people's lives could be attributed to economic growth and expanding employment as well as government's poverty alleviation intiatives, amongst others social assistance support and better housing," said the report.

Despite the decline in poverty levels, South Africa maintained a massive gap between the rich and the poor, with the wealthy getting richer faster.

A long period of sustained economic growth - interrupted by a recession which hit in 2008 - actually increased inequality, which the report said was "unacceptably high".

Inter-racial inequality was still high, with the average income of a black South African in 2009 at R845, compared to R8 141 earned by white South Africans.

Planning Minister Trevor Manuel said the report detailed a "warts and all" account of the state of South Africa and would be used to gauge the outcomes of policy.

It showed the negative impacts of the economic crisis such as a loss of 267 000 jobs in the second quarter of 2009, as well as concerns about increasing mortality due to HIV/Aids

 

[Pyro]

Ok - where is this report?

Also - since when?

Say you had R783/month 4 years ago. Infaltion is around 7%, so it should be R1026 now to if you cater for that.

 

[Bule]

Jacob Maroga is biggest contribution to that inter-racial equality. With his 5+ million per annum salary (poor Tito Mboweni used to have only 3,8 M PA) he makes average R8 141 earned by white South Africans just funny. No need to mention those few million BMW acquisitions by different ministers. Yes number of people living in poverty is much smaller now - they dying every day from AIDS and malnutrition.

 

[DreamKing]

oh thank you ANC.

poverty declining .................

 

[rebel998]

I find this statement very,very hard to believe.

 

[boramk]

Say you had R783/month 4 years ago. Infaltion is around 7%, so it should be R1026 now to if you cater for that.

The article doesn't state whether the income growth was in real terms or nominal.

No need for bashing, see good news and be happy. Funny how everyone ignored this thread until Pyro posted

 

[Kosmik]

The article doesn't state whether the income growth was in real terms or nominal.

No need for bashing, see good news and be happy. Funny how everyone ignored this thread until Pyro posted

Maybe because people intend to ignore pure crap. This is not good news because it is laughable. Poor people don't care about real or nominal. They care about food, clothing and housing.

 

[scotty777]

why does it have to be about race? so if the ANC takes 1/3 of the white mans salary, gives it to the black man to make sure that blacks and whites earn the same?

I'm sorry, this is irritating. If white people are still earning more then black people, and BEE has been in full swing for a while now, then I don't think it's working.

in fact I found something discerning on a wikipedia page : "Statistics South Africa reported that in 1995 the average white household earned four times as much as the average black household. In 2000 the average white household was earning six times more than the average black household."

from this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa

this means, that now in 2009, the average white house hold earns 10 times more then the average black house hold. How the hell does this make sense!?

 

[boramk]

Maybe because people intend to ignore pure crap. This is not good news because it is laughable. Poor people don't care about real or nominal. They care about food, clothing and housing.

And like that you lose credibility.
If it's in nominal terms, they're income hasn't grown by much because of inflation. If its real terms, they're income has grown by R300.

People buy money and clothing and housing with food
With an increase in income is an increase in standard of living. People don't work for food or clothes. Please

You +1 anyone who refutes good news about the country and +1 anyone who bashes the country in bad news

 

[Kosmik]

And like that you lose credibility.
If it's in nominal terms, they're income hasn't grown by much because of inflation. If its real terms, they're income has grown by R300.

People buy money and clothing and housing with food
With an increase in income is an increase in standard of living. People don't work for food or clothes. Please

You +1 anyone who refutes good news about the country and +1 anyone who bashes the country in bad news

Sorry mate. When the buying power of the average person decreases every year and you have to keep trying to earn more and more for what you used to have, thats not progress.

People don't work for food or clothes. Please

I was specificly refering to the poor. Yes, poor people work for food and cloathes. Everything else is luxury. If you don't realise that , then I doubt you've ever been really poor.

As to your comments about me being a country basher, I voted and I have the right to complain. If you want to live in a dictatorship, YOUR welcome to move to zim.

 

[boramk]

Sorry mate. When the buying power of the average person decreases every year and you have to keep trying to earn more and more for what you used to have, thats not progress.

You obviously don't understand what I mean by income growing in real terms. Therefore your argument is irrelevant
If you did, you wouldn't be bringing in buying power (inflation) into the picture.

I was specificly refering to the poor. Yes, poor people work for food and cloathes. Everything else is luxury. If you don't realise that , then I doubt you've ever been really poor.

As to your comments about me being a country basher, I voted and I have the right to complain. If you want to live in a dictatorship, YOUR welcome to move to zim.

Poor people work for money. This is used to buy the goods. If there a real growth in income, more of these goods can be afforded.

I dislike the ANC as well. I won't however call their stats rubbish (when the news is good) or shut down articles like these as idiotic.

 

[PeterCH]

It's difficult to comment on stats such as these when you don't know their source, and when you don't even know the reliability of the source too.

From an anecdotal POV, salaries are not keeping up with inflation and the high gold (et al) price and WC 2010 with demand for Rands are keeping prices relatively lower but overall outside of Gold (and other metals) SA has very little to offer to investors (workforce - no, skills - no, over unionised and spoilt workforce - yes, govt with lots of communist and trade union influences and support for dictators - yes, infrastructure not improved in 20 years - yes, high crime rate - yes, poor health services meaning an employee has to take a whole day off to see a state nurse for a sore throat - yes, one of the highest HIV/AIDS rates in the world - yes, highest TB rate in the world - yes, etc).

I'm not hopeful.

 

[Vrotappel]

I doubt the correctness of this story. We have shed hundreds of thousands of jobs this year, there is no way that over the last year there have been a decrease in poverty levels.

 

[happychappy]

I agree, we have the fastest growing black middle class in the world.

We also have the fastest growing informal WHITE settlements in the world. One in JHB is over 15000 from just 3400 in 2000. :roll:

 

[Pyro]

I dislike the ANC as well. I won't however call their stats rubbish (when the news is good) or shut down articles like these as idiotic.

That's the exact reason why I made my initial statement. You can abuse stats to your whim and sound completely legit to most people. This short exceprt contained too little information to verify wheter it's a real increase in income or not, hell it didn't even establish a timeframe.

Since no source was indicated, I didn't bother checking up on sources.

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."