EDITORIAL: Grow the economy to cut poverty
SA has made good progress in combating poverty in the first two decades of democracy
SA has made good progress in combating poverty in the first two decades of democracy. It is worrying that this progress has now begun to slip away. The Statistics SA report on poverty trends published last week was a grim reminder of who the real victims of low growth and economic stagnation were. In 2006, 66.6% of South Africans lived below the poverty line. By 2011, this proportion had shrunk to 53.2%. But by the time the 2015 survey was conducted, poverty had risen again, with 55.5% people below the line. Overlay these statistics with race and gender and the picture is darker. Now, 64% of black Africans live below the line, as do 43% of coloured people. The fortunes of Indians over this time continued to improve — only 5.9% are poor — and poverty among whites remained in the region of 1%. Women face greater hardship than men, with half of all female-headed households poor compared with 33%. The upper-bound poverty line, which is defined as the amount in rand needed for an individ...
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