INEQUALITY
SA is becoming a nation of three countries — along class, not racial lines
In May 1998, SA’s then-deputy president Thabo Mbeki declared that "the material conditions in our society have divided our country into two nations, the one black and the other white". Mbeki claimed that the disparity in material conditions was so great that it was possible to label SA "a country of two nations. One of these nations is white, relatively prosperous" and "all members of this nation have the possibility to exercise their right to equal opportunity". "The second and larger nation of SA is black and poor and it has virtually no possibility to exercise what in reality amounts to a theoretical right to equal opportunity." Has anything changed from Mbeki’s diagnosis two decades ago? Is SA still "a country of two nations"? There is much suggesting this is still the case. Racial disparities in employment continue to prevail. Black South Africans are most likely to be unemployed and poor, while white South Africans are least likely to be unemployed and poor. Importantly, racia...
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