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here is the new reality in south africa. Mail and Guardian (South Africa), by Vicki Robinson / Thursday, 08 July 2004
South Africa: Poor whites are strangers in a new land
Seventy-five years after the armblank (poor white) crisis of the 1930s, the phenomenon is resurfacing. White unemployment has nearly doubled since 1995, according to the Institute for Security Studies.
Today 430 000 whites, of a total white population of 4,5-million, are “too poor to live in traditional white areas” and 90 000 “are in a survival struggle”, says Lawrence Schlemmer, director of the Helen Suzman Foundation. Of these, 305 000 are Afrikaans-speaking and 215 000 speak English.
Since 1998 these figures have increased year-on-year by 15%. According to a survey by the South African Institute of Race Relations, white unemployment increased by 74,4%, using the expanded definition, between 1998 and 2002, compared with the national average over the same period of 39,8%. However, the growth of white unemployment is off a much lower population base than black unemployment.
A key goal of the National Party in the heyday of apartheid was to uplift poor whites by using the state and semi-state sectors to provide them with jobs and housing, reserving certain jobs for whites, favouring their trade unions and shoring up the farming sector.
But for the first time in the mid-1970s, there were more white-collar than blue-collar Afrikaners, and the policies of the NP shifted accordingly. Poor whites were increasingly abandoned by the state.
The 1994 election and the advent of majority rule has accelerated the downward precipitation of whites without capital or marketable skills. In desperation, they are clinging to what they know: religion, xenophobia and racism. Many still believe their skin colour puts them above menial labour, and prostitution has become a common way of earning a living.
“I do everything except Greek style and blacks,” says Lisa, who lives in suburban Vanderbijlpark, a microcosm of white economic distress. “I work nine till five because in the evenings I like to spend quality time with my kids.” She only takes bookings from businessmen and earns up to R15 000 a month.
Her office — a cerise room with a double bed, a crimson lounge suite, and a table carrying with a bottle of Johnson’s baby oil, government condoms and Courtleigh cigarettes — is in her backyard next to her swimming pool. Her children are aware of her business. They say they accept it because it gives them a house of their own and a higher standard of living.
Another Vanderbijlpark prostitute, Nikkie, has size 44E breasts with a red rose tattooed next to her right nipple, making her black string top look like an overstuffed couch. Her husband is unemployed, and she has two small children.
Often Nikkie goes away for weekends with groups of farmers on hunting trips to Kuruman in the Northern Cape. On these occasions she earns R4 500 in addition to her average R2 000 weekly earnings.
“I only do men over 30 because I shake the **** out of anyone younger,” she jokes. “My husband doesn’t mind — it actually excites him. Often we have a passionate session after a full night’s work. My only three rules are whites only, no anal sex and cleanliness — you can’t do a client smelling like a three-day-old snoek.”
Lisa and Nikkie both insist survival has forced them into the “game”.
Poor whites typically compensate for their low socio-economic status with aggressive racism. In an era when many black people are upwardly mobile, it serves to bolster their self-pride.
Estelle Claasens lives in a former Iscor home, now owned by the church, with six other families — each one crammed into a bedroom. Last month she walked out of her job — washing dishes at the café in Vanderbijlpark — because she refused to wear the required green overall. “I was happy to wash the floors and the toilets and the dishes but when they tried to dress me like a kaffir, that’s when I said thanks, but no thanks,” she says.
Sucking hard on her cigarette and blowing a yellow smoke-stream from the corner of her mouth, she is a bottle-blond caricature of Patricia Lewis.
“The government, they must build us those — what youmacall it?” she says twisting her plump hand in the air for inspiration. “Those RDP houses. But ours must be here and the kaffirs must be over there. We don’t have to live by each other because poor blacks will always be much lower-class than poor whites.”
White families live in the garages of many Vanderbijlpark homes — a lucrative business for the home-owners, who charge between R500 and R700 a month in rent.
White poverty first came to prominence in South Africa during the 1920s when president Jan Smuts singled it out as the greatest threat to Afrikaner survival. Initially a rural problem of subsistence farmers and bywoners (share-croppers), it developed into an urban phenomenon during the Great Depression. The official tally of poor whites increased from 10 000 in 1890 to 535 000 in 1936. They lived on the periphery of white society; many were barely literate and almost unemployable.
In 1948 DF Malan romped to power on the slogan “The white man must remain master”, and set about creating the apartheid system that would allow whites “to remain white and live white”. An economic safety net was constructed by the apartheid state through the colour bar, the distinction between “civilised” and “uncivilised” labour, protectionist policies for companies that employed whites, and minimum wage laws that insulated semi-skilled whites from competition by unskilled blacks.
The Apprenticeship Act of 1922, a mainstay of apartheid labour legislation, is ironically the downfall of many poor whites today. It stipulated a standard six pass as a minimum qualification for apprenticeship in 41 trades, including the giant iron and steel industries.
A privatised Iscor — whose Vanderbijlpark plant has shed 16 000 jobs in the past 10 years — is the source of most white poverty in the Vaal Triangle. Poor whites were Iscor “appies”, like their fathers before them, at a time when state-owned businesses provided sheltered employment for whites and their children. Today, their lack of formal education renders them redundant.
Racial transformation over the past decade, including economic redress in the form of affirmative action and black economic empowerment, has deepened their despair. “Whites have been set quite a severe test by transformation policies,” says Schlemmer. “Whenever a population is put to this kind of test it produces heightened performance among those who are confident and well-educated, while some drop out at the bottom. In other words, it increases inequality. It is plunging the minority at the bottom into deeper poverty and sharpening the wits at the top end.”
In 1994 44% of civil service posts were held by whites; by last year this had dropped to about 20%. In 1996 almost 50% of technicians and artisans were white; today the figure has fallen to about 20%.
With the sense of abandonment goes fatalistic inertia and heightened religionism. The houses of poor whites are full of Durer’s praying hands and other religious paraphernalia; all insist God has sent them poverty as a test. Rather than job-hunt, many sit in their front yards — uncovered patches of ground littered with cigarette butts, dogs and chickens — waiting for divine dispensation.
In the younger generation, rebellion typically takes the form of dabbling in Satanism.
Poor whites are detached and alienated from post-1994 politics, although some express dismay at former president FW de Klerk’s failure to drive a harder bargain for whites.
Bertus Bornman, a garage-dweller who earns R5 200 as a boiler operator at Iscor, complained that President Thabo Mbeki “should stop looking outside the country, and look inward” at its problems.
Most refuse to take “charity” from the current government. They are aware of assistance in the form of child and disability grants, but have not bothered to find out how to access them. “We’ll never beg,” said Nikkie.
Despite the professions of sturdy self-reliance, there is heavy dependency on private charity from middle-class Afrikaners, church organisations and Child Welfare. The Vanderbijlpark Christian Centre, a local church, has three homes for destitutes in Vanderbijlpark, while the NG Kerk has arranged support groups for alcoholics and the mentally ill.
Alcohol abuse and domestic violence are rife, and suicides or attempted suicides apparently common among the youth. Sarie de Preez (37) lives with her mother, who now provides for her, after her drunken husband, Bennie, nearly beat her to death with a plank in front of her five-year-old twin boys.
Felicity Curry (17) says she tried to kill herself last year by swallowing 28 pills after being raped by the leader of the Satanist cult. She lost her virginity at 13, after a lodger in her mother’s house gave her a choice: sex, or he would reveal her smoking habit to her parents. Her ankle is greyed with a slapdash tattoo that reads “Sex Cat”; the words “Bad Bitch” encircle her navel. She claims to have weaned herself from addiction to dagga and ecstasy.
There is an eeriness about Vanderbijlpark at weekends. The enduring image is of dilapidated Iscor homes, grimy children spinning tops on dusty lawns, and their dull, bleary-eyed fathers leaning on crooked gates.
“Die witmense kry swaar en die kaffirs kry lekker [Whites are suffering and kaffirs are doing great],” complains Bornman. He is a stranger in a strange, new South Africa, hopelessly alienated from its politics, washed up by change, imprisoned by a racial pride that harks back to a vanished era. He is one of apartheid’s hidden victims.
Source: Mail and Guardian (South Africa), by Vicki RobinsonMail Thursday, 08 July 2004
note- whites are now 9% of south africa 4.3 million.
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Hardship deepens for South Africa’s Poor Whites
Sitting in a deck chair at a white South African squatter camp, Ann le Roux, 60, holds a yellowing photo from her daughter’s wedding day.
Taken not long after Nelson Mandela became the country’s first black president in 1994, it shows Le Roux standing with her Afrikaans husband and their daughter outside their home in Melville, an upmarket Johannesburg neighborhood.
Sixteen years later, she lives in a caravan and a tent shared with seven other people, including her daughter and four grandchildren, at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans.
She is one of a growing number of whites living below the poverty line in South Africa who blame affirmative action and the ANC-led elected government for their plight.
Le Roux had to sell her house after her husband died and she lost her job as a secretary at the city planning council — where she had worked for 26 years — after she took time off work to recover from the loss of her husband.
“They wouldn’t take me back because of the political situation,” she says, looking down at the fading photo.
“Our color here is not the right color now in South Africa,” Le Roux says, echoing the complaint of many impoverished whites, mostly Afrikaners who are descendants of early Dutch and French settlers.
While most white South Africans still enjoy lives of privilege and relative wealth, the number of poor whites has risen steadily over the past 15 years. White unemployment nearly doubled between 1995 and 2005, according to the country’s Institute for Security Studies.
HARD TIMES
Seeking to reverse decades of racial inequality, the ruling ANC government introduced affirmative action laws that promote employment for blacks and aim to give black South Africans a bigger slice of the economy. This shift in racial hiring practices coupled with the fallout from the global financial crisis means many poor white South Africans have fallen on hard times.
At least 450,000 white South Africans, 10 percent of the total white population, live below the poverty line and 100,000 are struggling just to survive, according to civil organisations and largely white trade union Solidarity. South Africa’s population is about 50 million.
Many poor whites have ended up in places like Coronation Park, in Krugersdorp west of Johannesburg, a leafy former caravan site beside a water reservoir and a public picnic park frequented by middle-class families at weekends.
Ringed by yellow-brown hills of earth dug up by generations of gold miners, the park was used by the British as a concentration camp for Afrikaners during the Anglo-Boer war at the start of the 20th century. Now it’s home to some 400 white squatters living in cramped tents and caravans and sharing a single ablution block. Cats and dogs roam noisily through the camp, dodging heaps of rubbish, piles of scrap metal and abandoned car parts.
Water is heated and food cooked on open camp fires. The local council cut electricity to the camp after failing to evict the white squatters. The council wanted to develop the area into a wide screen viewing area for soccer matches ahead of the soccer World Cup, which South Africa hosts in June and July.
Some residents, including three black South Africans, have lived there for years. Others arrived in recent weeks.
“If you’re out of work and you haven’t got money, where must you go to? No one wants to help you — this is the only place to go to,” says Dennis Boshoff, 38.
ZUMA SHOCKED South African President Jacob Zuma visited a white squatter camp near the capital Pretoria last year ahead of his election, saying he was “shocked and surprised”.
“The vast number in black poverty does not mean we must ignore white poverty, which is becoming an embarrassment to talk about,” Zuma said at the time.
White poverty in South Africa is a politically sensitive subject that gets little attention, but it is not new.
Under apartheid, introduced in 1948, whites enjoyed vast protection and sheltered employment. The weakest and least educated whites were protected by the civil service and state-owned industries operating as job-creation schemes, guaranteeing even the poorest whites a home and livelihood.
But with that economic safety net now gone, South Africa’s unskilled whites find themselves on the wrong side of history, gaining little sympathy from those who perceive them as having profited unfairly during the brutal apartheid years.
Trade union Solidarity says there are around 430,000 whites who live in squatter camps. Around the capital Pretoria alone there are 80 squatter settlements. There are over 2,000 much larger black squatter camps across South Africa.
Formerly comfortable Afrikaners recently forced to live on the fringes of society see themselves as victims of “reverse-apartheid” that they say puts them at an even greater disadvantage than the millions of poor black South Africans.
“Blacks get more than whites at the moment. They’re being pulled forward against us. That’s why all of us are here. It’s very unfair because they told us it was going to be equal, but it’s not equal,” said Boshoff.
This feeling of victimisation and abandonment by the state has forged at the camp a collective sense of fatalism, isolation and firm reliance on their Calvinist religion. Each of the camp’s ramshackle huts and tents is adorned with religious paraphernalia and an Afrikaans language bible.
Many poor white communities also struggle with alcoholism, violence and abuse but at Coronation Park, social problems have declined. “We kicked a lot of the worst ones out and the fighting and violence has gone down,” said Hugo Van Niekerk, who has managed the camp over the past few years.
Van Niekerk, who solicits donations and helps community members find odd jobs, successfully fought an eviction order last year from the local municipality but he expects little help from the council or government on housing.
“We won’t get houses from this government. If we were black maybe yes, but we are white.”
Children walk through a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp, March 6, 2010. REUTERS/Finbarr O’Reilly
Children play on a tire being used to block the entrance to a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp, March 6, 2010. REUTERS/Finbarr O’Reilly
Friends talk through the window of a one-room hut at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp, March 6, 2010. REUTERS/Finbarr O’Reilly
Lukas Gouws, 29, smokes at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp, March 6, 2010. REUTERS/Finbarr O’Reilly
Lukas Gouws tells off a boy for digging up snakes at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp, March 6, 2010. REUTERS/Finbarr O’Reilly
A family smokes together during a quiet moment at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp, March 13, 2010. REUTERS/Finbarr O’Reilly
___________ Comments Posted by Asar Africa is for Africans.
Posted by vortex_bits I guess, considering Rwanda, that it could be worse. It’s hard not to sound insensitive, but it may be true that they are reaping what they sowed. They failed to treat the black equally through all those years; can forgiveness and equal treatment be expected with so much resentment done? Nonetheless I can only wish the best to these folk.
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note- the white population is now 9% in south africa.4.3 million now.
it was 13% or 14% in the early 90's. reason- black population is still growing,white population is not,and alot of white left.
black power is the move there.
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Poor Whites / Rich Blacks In South Africa! JourneyMan reports "The end of the Apartheid regime saw black South Africans gain from democracy and climb the social ladder. On the other hand white South Africans are learning that now the tables have turned, life isnt so easy."
or full video Poor whites - South Africa June 2006 Since the end of apartheid, thousands of white South Africans have been forced into poverty. They blame the government's positive discrimination policies, which favour black employees...
note- to clear up the comment in the last scene he mentions that the most of the poor or black.
true,since they are the major group in the country just like most of the poor in america are white.
but most of the black folks in south africa are NOT poor,THE POVERTY RATE FOR BLACKS IS around 28%. in the early 90's it was 60% or 70%. THEY COME ALONG WAY.
so in other words most of the poor are black in south africa but most blacks are not poor IN SOUTH AFRICA. i hope you get.
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update- it looks like thking have got worse for whites in south africa and better for blacks.
the white poor seem to have increase from 400,000 something to 700,000,so the white poor is more then 10% now.it may be up to 14% or around there.anyway it's not less then 10% anymore.
this is going to happen because blacks are getting most of the jobs now.in the future has wealth grows and more job are created then maybe the white poverty rate will go back down just like the black poverty rate is doing now and in the future,but for now whites will have to pay the price. in the future if white poverty is greatly decrease and black poverty more so it will show than south africa is a greater country then it is now.all this will show is it's greatness even more so.
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The trade union Solidarity, which brough thet ANC leader Jacob Zuma to Bethlehem, estimates 700,000 whites cannot afford a basic house, and 130,000 are classified as poor. These figures are dwarfed by the numbers of impoverished non-whites but discussion of white poverty has been taboo.
Mr Hermann said between 1997 and 2002, white unemployment rose by 106 per cent. Many in blue-collar or clerical jobs in large companies and councils were offered severance packages in the post-apartheid government's policy of transformation.
When the money ran out, Afrikaners were left destitute. Mr Hermann said the white English population was less affected because they were more "entrepreneurial" and had less-protected professions under apartheid. He acknowledged indifference to poverty among Afrikaners, the main beneficiaries of apartheid who enjoyed subsidised housing, jobs and benefits.
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SA among world’s freer economies Wednesday, 05 March 2008 Economic freedom in South Africa is considered to be higher than that of the world average, according to Heritage Foundation’s 2008 Index of Economic Freedom.
With a score of 63.2%, South Africa’s levels of economic freedom are above the world average of 60.3%. South
Africa earned a global ranking of 57, making it the fourth freest economy of the 40 African countries that were
surveyed. The Africa rankings were topped by Mauritius (18), Botswana (36) and Uganda (52).
surveyed. The Africa rankings were topped by Mauritius (18), Botswana (36) and Uganda (52).
_____________- IN SEEMS THAT LOWER INCOME DOES NOT MEAN POOR IN SOUTH AFRICA,it's mean working class and working class is not poor.
FACT is THE BLACK POOR IN SOUTH AFRICA IS AROUND 30% or 28% WHILE FOR THE OVERALL POOR POPULATION IN SOUTH AFRICA IS AROUND 20%. the white poor is around 9 or 10% so THE WHITE POOR HAS GONE UP AND THE BLACK POOR AS GONE DOWN.the white poor used to be lower then that however,but anyway. THAT'S GOOD NEWS TO ME.READ MORE BELOW.
by the way the white poor is not going to go down that much lower because many of them have money and the skills,but this shows that the black poor has gone downs and will go down more in future.if you want to the white poor to go up,simple get rid of the white rich and middle-class by kicking them out and etc etc ... but then south africa will not be a free country anymore. so far the whites are not rebelling,so no need to kick them out for the time being.
IN FACT it will take time for the average black family to make as much as white but one thing is overlooked,the growth of the wealth has to get larger and the need for more ownership,but even if this gap closes there will still be those who were damage from the past and will never trust any system.whites are the small group and are highly educated so of course they would have % wise higher incomes than most in the country.even if most of the wealth was under control of blacks because it's a free country.if the black population in future is to have on average the higher incomes,most of the wealth must be in thier hands and that will happen and it will take time because the black population is very large and more wealth needs to be create,and that's happening.so overall this is not a quick fix but things are heading in a good direction so far.
this is a evolution ,not revolution .the choice was made for evolution because this is thebest path for a highly advanced modern country and a revolution will just do to much damage. for south africa evolution is the best path.south africa does not need a a blood bath against the whites and the country does not need to be set back. they know what they are doing,they are getting the skills from the whites to advanced thier country further and they are getting the skills from the blacks who have them already there,so no need for them to run away either.has more blacks get the skills,then more white will be replaced and this takes time,that is whay it's a evolution .it's aclled a spider's web and for a country like south africa it's the best thing do do.
no need for arm chair generals and constant complaints,because they are on the move with or without black america.
it is not necessary for blacks has a whole to out do whites in the income department, or at least anytime soon.asians in the u.s. have higher incomes than whites in america on average but that does not mean they control the country or most of the land or businesess.
just because you control the land or most of it or most of the resources does not mean you can't have much or most of the pie.it is other factors that come in to play.
blacks in england do better than whites and are called the asians of britian,whatever that means.so it is not as simple as certain folks try to make it. _________________________________ The Black Middle Class: fact or fiction? in south africa
"The Black Middle Class is a mirage,” a caller emphatically announced as I tuned into a radio talk show recently. What was being discussed was BusinessMap’s recent research report BEE 2007 - Empowerment and its Critics. The report analyses the number of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) equity deals that have taken place over the past year. However the interview didn't really focus on this aspect, but rather around whether a significant Black Middle Class was emerging in South Africa.
As many callers phoned in to say it was a mirage, as phoned in to say it was a reality.
Clearly it would be inappropriate to use as the measure the number of BEE deals brokered, but are there other measures that give real evidence of this emerging group of people?
Let's begin by agreeing that the middle-class is generally accepted as Living Standards Measures (LSM’s) 7, 8 & 9, families that earn between R6,880 and R12,647 per month. LSM’s are researched annually by the South African Advertising Research Foundation and range from Level 1 to Level 10 with Level 1 and 2 being extreme poverty, Level 3 being poor, Level 4,5 & 6 being lower income, Level 7, 8 & 9 being middle income and Level 10 being upper income.
The chart below was produced by the South African Advertising Research Foundation and illustrates how the demographics of families residing at each level have changed between 1994 and 2006.
SA Good News"The rich have become richer and the poor, poorer,” another caller announced as I listened further on the radio talk show. But the table above tells a different story. Yes, the richer have become richer, but the poor have not become poorer. On the contrary, it is estimated that some 500,000 families have moved out of LSM’s 1, 2 & 3 in to LSM’s 4, 5 & 6 and that some 400,000 families have moved out of LSM’s 4, 5 & 6 into LSM’s 7, 8 & 9. What has happened though is that the rich have become richer faster than the poor have become less poor. This was covered recently in the Sunday Times in a report which stated that South Africa is one of the most upwardly mobile societies in the world!
Is there evidence of this? Absolutely. Car sales in South Africa have gone from 365,000 new units in 2003 to 730,000 new units sold last year (2,000 new cars on our roads each day!). What’s more, eighty percent of the buyers were black. The sale of home appliances is also exploding and our property price improvement tops the global rankings. While there is a reasonable supply of houses in the R2m plus bracket at the top end, and in the R50 000 to R400 000 bracket at the bottom end, there is a chronic shortage of mid-priced houses - further evidence of a growing middle class. Once again, most of these aspirant owners are black. There are an estimated 23 million cell phone users in the country. The tax net has grown from 2.3 million taxpayers in 1994 to nearly 7 million today, and this is expected to grow to 10,5 million by 2010. Do the maths - the numbers indicate a growing middle class!
Need further evidence? Read the article in the FM entitled Soweto rising which tells us that there has been a huge economic turnaround in Soweto, most evident in the dramatic growth in retail space. Shopping malls are popping up everywhere, with more planned. Until about five years ago, infrastructural development and private investment was considered too risky. This perception changed when studies showed that the living standards of many blacks were moving up to the “middle class level”. Various malls around Soweto are now providing shopping and entertainment previously only available in the leafy suburbs.
Our economy is now growing at around 5%, whereas our population is predicted to stabilise at between 45m and 48m people over the next 20 years. (Our population is growing at less than 1% per annum, not because of HIV/Aids - although that has an influence - but mostly because of rapid urbanisation and improved education opportunities). Our economy is growing five times faster than our population and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out what the implications are. Most economists feel that our economic prospects will remain good for the next 20 years!
Clearly we still have a massive problem in respect of poverty in South Africa with at least 20% of our population languishing in LSM levels 1,2 & 3, but 10 years ago that number was approximately 40%. I have written much about poverty previously and I certainly do not underestimate the challenge that this presents. Having said that, the fact that the government spends R80bn a year on social grants, benefiting approximately 11 million adults and children “at the bottom of the pile” (surprisingly this is not taking into account when poverty levels are measured) must be factored into the "poverty debate", and “measure” for that matter.
Is a middle-class important in our fledgling democracy? Well, what is happening in South Africa, unlike many other African countries is that economic opportunity, as opposed to political connectedness, is increasingly being realised as an opportunity for prosperity. It is often said that in developing countries, politics drives economics, whereas in developed countries, the opposite holds true. Obviously, the greater the size of the middle-class, the more this pendulum will shift in favour of the latter.
It goes without saying that middle-class people have a lifestyle they wish to protect against the uncertainties of boom/ bust economic practice, rampant inflation and deteriorating currency valuation. Hopefully they will use their vote to ensure this.
The middle-class has a vested interest in the future, the future of their children, of schooling, of health institutions, of infrastructure, of political stability and of economic well-being. This creates upward pressure on delivery; better shops, higher quality entertainment, working infrastructure, good schools, safe amenities, and professional healthcare.
THIS IS WHERE JOBS FOR THE “LOST GENERATION” ARE CREATED.
The South African economy is increasingly becoming service oriented, only 12% of GDP is contributed to by the mining sector, and 20% of GDP by manufacturing. A substantial 68% of GDP is therefore contributed to by the services sector.
What kind of people are employed there? Skilled professionals.
What group of people is unemployed in South Africa? Largely unskilled people with a poor education, the "lost generation" as they are often referred to. How will they be employed? By middle-class people who have a requirement for the services they can offer as waiters, shop assistants, domestic helpers, gardeners, cleaners, security guards etc. (These may be considered to be ordinary jobs, but they do represent the first rung on the ladder out of the poverty trap and they do give the incumbents a real chance to give their children a chance. For more on this, read Jeffrey Sachs’ book The End of Poverty.)
It is often said that for every skilled person entering the economy between four and six unskilled jobs are created. That is why the growth of a middle-class is so important.
Various estimates indicate that our economy currently has a million jobs unfilled. (Wake up Home Affairs, go away those naysayers who argue that whites can't get jobs!). Imagine if these jobs could be filled in the next five years. Imagine how that would dent unemployment!
Is there a growing middle-class? Absolutely.
Is it the solution to poverty and unemployment? Only partially.
Is it good for our country? Fundamentally.
Will it continue to grow? Sure, provided we can produce the skills and maintain economic growth levels and between
between 4% and 6%. ____________________________________________ SA's big spenders drive economic growth
Wednesday, 07 November 2007
Over the past seven years South Africa’s black population has steadily risen in high income earning brackets and has also become South Africa’s biggest spenders, aMarket Research (BMR).according to the University of South Africa’s Bureau of
The BMR’s integrated model of the South African population, labour market and income and expenditure revealed that the white population still remains the wealthiest in the country. But the survey also shows some parity between black and white income earners particularly in the R100K - R300K bracket. Blacks account for 1.4 million of this group and whites, 1.3 million. Project Leader Professor Carl van Aardt highlights this as an
indication of dramatic economic growth in the black population.
The report also shows that the black population leads the pack in household expenditure, spending R550 billion this year, followed by whites whose expenditure amounted to R506 billion Van Aardt believes that the BMR’s investigation into income and expenditure is a more realistic assessment of the
affluence of South African consumers, the sophistication of the markets and a more comprehensive estimate of the actual size of the country’s GDP and thus allowing for more accurate future projections.
We can expect South Africa’s current growth rate at 4.5% to sustain itself over the medium term due to the fact for more accurate future projections. “We can expect South Africa’s current growth rate at 4.5% to sustain itself over the medium term due to the fact South Africa is a consumption driven economy and black consumers will keep growing,” says van Aardt. Medium to long term growth will be driven by government capital expenditure as we progress towards the 2010
Van Aardt confidently states that South Africa is not headed in the direction of Zimbabwe. “The Zimbabwean economy is dependant on basic commodities, agriculture and mining while the South African economy is very diversified. Even if one sector took a knock there would be other factors in place to hold our economy together.” Though we face positive prospects, van Aardt warns that some of South Africa’s biggest problems could threaten economic growth. Both foreign portfolio and direct investment are vulnerable to crime. A loss in these foreign investments could see South Africa experience a big “economic hiccup”. Though the number of historically disadvantaged South Africans moving into higher earning brackets is on the increase, “the number of people in poverty has stagnated. We have people trapped in poverty,” says Van Aardt. He attributes this to the skills shortage in South Africa and the mismatch between skills available and skills required. ___________________________________________
Bank: strong economic gains for African economies HARRY DUNPHY 0 Comments Published: April 23, 2010
WASHINGTON (AP) — The economic news out of Africa is good, spurred by strong demand from global markets for African oil, minerals and agricultural products.
The African Development Bank reports the region is one of the fastest growing in the world, with a projected overall growth rate of more than 4 percent in 2010, more than double that of most developed countries still recovering from the economic meltdown that began in late 2008.
The crisis did have an impact on many African economies, which were registering growth rates of more than 6 percent before it struck.
"If the world economy and world trade continue to recover, and oil and non-oil commodity prices remain close to current levels, the outlook for continuing growth in 2010 is extremely promising, progressing toward the almost 6 percent of the pre-crisis period," said Leonce Ndikumana, a Burundian who is the African bank's chief economist.
He said with an increasing number of investors willing to take advantage of opportunities in Africa and a fast-growing middle class, "the contemporary African landscape is not dissimilar from that of Asia a few decades ago."
The bank projected that Congo (Brazzaville) would have the fastest growing economy at 11.8 percent, followed by Angola, 8.7 percent, and Congo (Kinshasa) at 6.2 percent.
At the other end of the scale, a number of countries hit harder by the crisis will take longer to recover. They include Equatorial Guinea, minus 2.6 percent; Swaziland, 0.9 percent; and Seychelles, 1.3 percent.
Included in this group, surprisingly, is South Africa, the continent's most vibrant economy, whose growth rate is projected at 2.2 percent.
The bank said much of southern Africa's problem can be attributed to the collapse of commodity prices and the fall of export volumes. These factors led to declines in employment, exports, cash remittances, foreign direct investment and other revenues.
Throughout the economic crisis, the bank said it has played a major role helping countries and mobilizing financing from outside sources, especially the private sector.
Ndikumana said public sector lending continues to be important, but the bank wants to see the private sector broaden the base for growth in Africa.
"In the past the emphasis has been on the public sector, but that is not sufficient to reach and sustain high growth rates. Support for the private sector creates income and jobs."
Asian countries are taking advantage of the investment potential, the bank said, especially Chinese but also Korean and Indian investors.
"Chinese investment currently is very significant," said Ndikumana. "In many ways the Chinese are underwriting the industrialization of the continent." Investment from the Middle East also is increasing, including in agriculture.
The bank said it hopes that these emerging partnerships with new investors will serve as hedges against future shocks from the developed world and will broaden Africa's export base.
Blacks flourishing SOWETO, South Africa - Black South Africans are reaping the benefits of a growing economy, and at the heart of it is Soweto, where Nelson Mandela presided over the gala opening of a multimillion-dollar mall yesterday. The sprawling township that was the center of the anti-apartheid struggle is being transformed, with new houses, new parks and paved roads. [/QB][/QUOTE]
____________________________ THAT'S ALL I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THIS. BYE BYE.
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posted
NOTE- THE BLACK POPULATION IS STILL GROWING.THE OVERALL POPULATION BY 2050 IN SOUTH AFRICA MAY BE AROUND 67 TO 69 MILLION. so it will still grow more then 1% a year
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posted
yeah,but they are getting less and less of that control and in the end,within this this decade most of that control they will loss,sooner or later.africanization is taking place,not has fast has one would like but it's happening.
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here another conversion talking about the high speed train.it seems it is made now in south africa too.
[QUOTE=jules3c;58831147]The gautrain is the greatest train ever build on the African continent.design, developed, financed and build by south Africans. A true African achievement.[/QUOTE]
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[QUOTE=Yoniii;58839297]Are the trains actually manufactured in SA? I thought it would be French or something. Wow, that's really an accomplishment.[/QUOTE]
___________________ [QUOTE=Lydon;58842615]Haha no, ElectroStar in the UK designed the trains themselves.[/QUOTE]
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[QUOTE=JoHaN 15;58842827]Not entirely. The Gautrain is a joint project between a South African, French and German company. 15 Cars are manufactured in Britain while the remainder are assembled in South Africa using components made in Britain.[/QUOTE]
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[QUOTE=jules3c;58850619]Most big products in the west are not 100% manufactured in one country. For example the Airbus especially the a380xxx is build build in many countries including the USA. I believe some of the seats are manufactured in south Africa, however the everything is assembled in France. I believe it is Toulouse France. Samething with the gautrain. First they come up with a plan, then design, develop, finance and then find partners and in the end the whole plan gets excecuted. The gautrain is being managed by south African engineers from start to finish. The labor is south African and there is transfer of technology from brittain in building the trains itself.[/QUOTE]
____________________________________________
[QUOTE=dakhla;58885593]yeah your right, a lot of airbus part are made in morocco, last year the aeronautique sector made over 1 billion $ for the first time in morocco and the growt is 20% a year, and tunisia just assembled it first airbus 2 mo ago..... yeah there is a lot of thing that are made in africa for international market.
i hope south africa will make more of those trains and export them to other african countries in the futur, that how we can move ahead.
the transfert of technology is verry important.[/QUOTE]
posted
Gautrain is a train system built primarily by white engineers with cheap black labor financed by wealth stolen from blacks. The first lines are primarily connecting rich white enclaves and suburbs to upper class white corporate areas which are mostly white. How does any of this have anything to do with progress for blacks?
Progress for blacks in South Africa should be measured by:
1) Number of contstruction, engineering and development firms owned and controlled by blacks
2) Financing, capital and other wealth controlled by blacks (from diamonds, gold, platinum, aluminum, etc)
3) Construction projects (rail lines, highways, schools, hotels, apartments and housing), not only built with black labor but designed and financed by wealth controlled by blacks directly for the benefit of blacks.
Being happy about projects that have minimal direct impact on black lives is silliness. Most blacks in South Africa still live in shanty towns, yet black people think a rail line built for whites to travel from their upscale suburbs to their almost exclusively white jobs is somehow progress.....
In reality based on the history of apartheid and its economic agenda, the only progress for blacks in South Africa is to control the industrial and economic base of the country. Otherwise, they will never be anything more than unemployed landless peasant masses, with no land, no wealth and no control of economics, while the even smaller white minority lives in the lap of luxury protected by their black face political clowns who cater to their every need.
That is not freedom it is stupidity.
Blacks in Africa have all the natural resources, brain power and manpower they need to build and develop their own communities for the future. The problem was and still is the fact that white racists run the global economic system and this system was implicitly built on and is supported through the continuing economic disenfranchisement and oppression of blacks and stealing the land, labor and wealth of Africa.
Blacks today simply like living in a fantasy world of topsy turvy land, where down is up and up is down, meaning their worsening plight is imagined as "good" and actually doing something to really make things better is the "bad" thing to do. So don't put a foot in the ass of the thieves who have stolen all of your wealth and live lavishly at your expense. Of course not. That would be bad. No, you should treat them with honor and respect after all the years of killing your ancestors, degrading them and enslaving them in order to bring about the "progress" that blacks really don't participate in to this day, except as consumers, which really means nothing. Don't just be happy to be able to go into the store and buy or sit at the counter (American civil rights agenda), be about owning the store. Don't just be happy to ride on a train designed and built to service white wealth, design and build a train to service blacks.
That is the only answer.
Do what everyone else does: take your future and destiny in your own hands and do for self. Stop waiting for an economic system designed to destroy blacks to somehow change its stripes and begin to benefit blacks and create wealth and power for blacks. It won't ever happen.
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quote:SA among world’s freer economies Wednesday, 05 March 2008 Economic freedom in South Africa is considered to be higher than that of the world average, according to Heritage Foundation’s 2008 Index of Economic Freedom.
With a score of 63.2%, South Africa’s levels of economic freedom are above the world average of 60.3%. South
Africa earned a global ranking of 57, making it the fourth freest economy of the 40 African countries that were
surveyed. The Africa rankings were topped by Mauritius (18), Botswana (36) and Uganda (52).
surveyed. The Africa rankings were topped by Mauritius (18), Botswana (36) and Uganda (52).
_____________- IN SEEMS THAT LOWER INCOME DOES NOT MEAN POOR IN SOUTH AFRICA,it's mean working class and working class is not poor.
FACT is THE BLACK POOR IN SOUTH AFRICA IS AROUND 30% or 28% WHILE FOR THE OVERALL POOR POPULATION IN SOUTH AFRICA IS AROUND 20%. the white poor is around 9 or 10% so THE WHITE POOR HAS GONE UP AND THE BLACK POOR AS GONE DOWN.the white poor used to be lower then that however,but anyway. THAT'S GOOD NEWS TO ME.READ MORE BELOW.
by the way the white poor is not going to go down that much lower because many of them have money and the skills,but this shows that the black poor has gone downs and will go down more in future.if you want to the white poor to go up,simple get rid of the white rich and middle-class by kicking them out and etc etc ... but then south africa will not be a free country anymore. so far the whites are not rebelling,so no need to kick them out for the time being.
IN FACT it will take time for the average black family to make as much as white but one thing is overlooked,the growth of the wealth has to get larger and the need for more ownership,but even if this gap closes there will still be those who were damage from the past and will never trust any system.whites are the small group and are highly educated so of course they would have % wise higher incomes than most in the country.even if most of the wealth was under control of blacks because it's a free country.if the black population in future is to have on average the higher incomes,most of the wealth must be in thier hands and that will happen and it will take time because the black population is very large and more wealth needs to be create,and that's happening.so overall this is not a quick fix but things are heading in a good direction so far.
this is a evolution ,not revolution .the choice was made for evolution because this is thebest path for a highly advanced modern country and a revolution will just do to much damage. for south africa evolution is the best path.south africa does not need a a blood bath against the whites and the country does not need to be set back. they know what they are doing,they are getting the skills from the whites to advanced thier country further and they are getting the skills from the blacks who have them already there,so no need for them to run away either.has more blacks get the skills,then more white will be replaced and this takes time,that is whay it's a evolution .it's aclled a spider's web and for a country like south africa it's the best thing do do.
no need for arm chair generals and constant complaints,because they are on the move with or without black america.
it is not necessary for blacks has a whole to out do whites in the income department, or at least anytime soon.asians in the u.s. have higher incomes than whites in america on average but that does not mean they control the country or most of the land or businesess.
just because you control the land or most of it or most of the resources does not mean you can't have much or most of the pie.it is other factors that come in to play.
blacks in england do better than whites and are called the asians of britian,whatever that means.so it is not as simple as certain folks try to make it. _________________________________ The Black Middle Class: fact or fiction? in south africa
"The Black Middle Class is a mirage,” a caller emphatically announced as I tuned into a radio talk show recently. What was being discussed was BusinessMap’s recent research report BEE 2007 - Empowerment and its Critics. The report analyses the number of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) equity deals that have taken place over the past year. However the interview didn't really focus on this aspect, but rather around whether a significant Black Middle Class was emerging in South Africa.
As many callers phoned in to say it was a mirage, as phoned in to say it was a reality.
Clearly it would be inappropriate to use as the measure the number of BEE deals brokered, but are there other measures that give real evidence of this emerging group of people?
Let's begin by agreeing that the middle-class is generally accepted as Living Standards Measures (LSM’s) 7, 8 & 9, families that earn between R6,880 and R12,647 per month. LSM’s are researched annually by the South African Advertising Research Foundation and range from Level 1 to Level 10 with Level 1 and 2 being extreme poverty, Level 3 being poor, Level 4,5 & 6 being lower income, Level 7, 8 & 9 being middle income and Level 10 being upper income.
The chart below was produced by the South African Advertising Research Foundation and illustrates how the demographics of families residing at each level have changed between 1994 and 2006.
SA Good News"The rich have become richer and the poor, poorer,” another caller announced as I listened further on the radio talk show. But the table above tells a different story. Yes, the richer have become richer, but the poor have not become poorer. On the contrary, it is estimated that some 500,000 families have moved out of LSM’s 1, 2 & 3 in to LSM’s 4, 5 & 6 and that some 400,000 families have moved out of LSM’s 4, 5 & 6 into LSM’s 7, 8 & 9. What has happened though is that the rich have become richer faster than the poor have become less poor. This was covered recently in the Sunday Times in a report which stated that South Africa is one of the most upwardly mobile societies in the world!
Is there evidence of this? Absolutely. Car sales in South Africa have gone from 365,000 new units in 2003 to 730,000 new units sold last year (2,000 new cars on our roads each day!). What’s more, eighty percent of the buyers were black. The sale of home appliances is also exploding and our property price improvement tops the global rankings. While there is a reasonable supply of houses in the R2m plus bracket at the top end, and in the R50 000 to R400 000 bracket at the bottom end, there is a chronic shortage of mid-priced houses - further evidence of a growing middle class. Once again, most of these aspirant owners are black. There are an estimated 23 million cell phone users in the country. The tax net has grown from 2.3 million taxpayers in 1994 to nearly 7 million today, and this is expected to grow to 10,5 million by 2010. Do the maths - the numbers indicate a growing middle class!
Need further evidence? Read the article in the FM entitled Soweto rising which tells us that there has been a huge economic turnaround in Soweto, most evident in the dramatic growth in retail space. Shopping malls are popping up everywhere, with more planned. Until about five years ago, infrastructural development and private investment was considered too risky. This perception changed when studies showed that the living standards of many blacks were moving up to the “middle class level”. Various malls around Soweto are now providing shopping and entertainment previously only available in the leafy suburbs.
Our economy is now growing at around 5%, whereas our population is predicted to stabilise at between 45m and 48m people over the next 20 years. (Our population is growing at less than 1% per annum, not because of HIV/Aids - although that has an influence - but mostly because of rapid urbanisation and improved education opportunities). Our economy is growing five times faster than our population and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out what the implications are. Most economists feel that our economic prospects will remain good for the next 20 years!
Clearly we still have a massive problem in respect of poverty in South Africa with at least 20% of our population languishing in LSM levels 1,2 & 3, but 10 years ago that number was approximately 40%. I have written much about poverty previously and I certainly do not underestimate the challenge that this presents. Having said that, the fact that the government spends R80bn a year on social grants, benefiting approximately 11 million adults and children “at the bottom of the pile” (surprisingly this is not taking into account when poverty levels are measured) must be factored into the "poverty debate", and “measure” for that matter.
Is a middle-class important in our fledgling democracy? Well, what is happening in South Africa, unlike many other African countries is that economic opportunity, as opposed to political connectedness, is increasingly being realised as an opportunity for prosperity. It is often said that in developing countries, politics drives economics, whereas in developed countries, the opposite holds true. Obviously, the greater the size of the middle-class, the more this pendulum will shift in favour of the latter.
It goes without saying that middle-class people have a lifestyle they wish to protect against the uncertainties of boom/ bust economic practice, rampant inflation and deteriorating currency valuation. Hopefully they will use their vote to ensure this.
The middle-class has a vested interest in the future, the future of their children, of schooling, of health institutions, of infrastructure, of political stability and of economic well-being. This creates upward pressure on delivery; better shops, higher quality entertainment, working infrastructure, good schools, safe amenities, and professional healthcare.
THIS IS WHERE JOBS FOR THE “LOST GENERATION” ARE CREATED.
The South African economy is increasingly becoming service oriented, only 12% of GDP is contributed to by the mining sector, and 20% of GDP by manufacturing. A substantial 68% of GDP is therefore contributed to by the services sector.
What kind of people are employed there? Skilled professionals.
What group of people is unemployed in South Africa? Largely unskilled people with a poor education, the "lost generation" as they are often referred to. How will they be employed? By middle-class people who have a requirement for the services they can offer as waiters, shop assistants, domestic helpers, gardeners, cleaners, security guards etc. (These may be considered to be ordinary jobs, but they do represent the first rung on the ladder out of the poverty trap and they do give the incumbents a real chance to give their children a chance. For more on this, read Jeffrey Sachs’ book The End of Poverty.)
It is often said that for every skilled person entering the economy between four and six unskilled jobs are created. That is why the growth of a middle-class is so important.
Various estimates indicate that our economy currently has a million jobs unfilled. (Wake up Home Affairs, go away those naysayers who argue that whites can't get jobs!). Imagine if these jobs could be filled in the next five years. Imagine how that would dent unemployment!
Is there a growing middle-class? Absolutely.
Is it the solution to poverty and unemployment? Only partially.
Is it good for our country? Fundamentally.
Will it continue to grow? Sure, provided we can produce the skills and maintain economic growth levels and between
between 4% and 6%. ____________________________________________ SA's big spenders drive economic growth
Wednesday, 07 November 2007
Over the past seven years South Africa’s black population has steadily risen in high income earning brackets and has also become South Africa’s biggest spenders, aMarket Research (BMR).according to the University of South Africa’s Bureau of
The BMR’s integrated model of the South African population, labour market and income and expenditure revealed that the white population still remains the wealthiest in the country. But the survey also shows some parity between black and white income earners particularly in the R100K - R300K bracket. Blacks account for 1.4 million of this group and whites, 1.3 million. Project Leader Professor Carl van Aardt highlights this as an
indication of dramatic economic growth in the black population.
The report also shows that the black population leads the pack in household expenditure, spending R550 billion this year, followed by whites whose expenditure amounted to R506 billion Van Aardt believes that the BMR’s investigation into income and expenditure is a more realistic assessment of the
affluence of South African consumers, the sophistication of the markets and a more comprehensive estimate of the actual size of the country’s GDP and thus allowing for more accurate future projections.
We can expect South Africa’s current growth rate at 4.5% to sustain itself over the medium term due to the fact for more accurate future projections. “We can expect South Africa’s current growth rate at 4.5% to sustain itself over the medium term due to the fact South Africa is a consumption driven economy and black consumers will keep growing,” says van Aardt. Medium to long term growth will be driven by government capital expenditure as we progress towards the 2010
Van Aardt confidently states that South Africa is not headed in the direction of Zimbabwe. “The Zimbabwean economy is dependant on basic commodities, agriculture and mining while the South African economy is very diversified. Even if one sector took a knock there would be other factors in place to hold our economy together.” Though we face positive prospects, van Aardt warns that some of South Africa’s biggest problems could threaten economic growth. Both foreign portfolio and direct investment are vulnerable to crime. A loss in these foreign investments could see South Africa experience a big “economic hiccup”. Though the number of historically disadvantaged South Africans moving into higher earning brackets is on the increase, “the number of people in poverty has stagnated. We have people trapped in poverty,” says Van Aardt. He attributes this to the skills shortage in South Africa and the mismatch between skills available and skills required. ___________________________________________
Bank: strong economic gains for African economies HARRY DUNPHY 0 Comments Published: April 23, 2010
WASHINGTON (AP) — The economic news out of Africa is good, spurred by strong demand from global markets for African oil, minerals and agricultural products.
The African Development Bank reports the region is one of the fastest growing in the world, with a projected overall growth rate of more than 4 percent in 2010, more than double that of most developed countries still recovering from the economic meltdown that began in late 2008.
The crisis did have an impact on many African economies, which were registering growth rates of more than 6 percent before it struck.
"If the world economy and world trade continue to recover, and oil and non-oil commodity prices remain close to current levels, the outlook for continuing growth in 2010 is extremely promising, progressing toward the almost 6 percent of the pre-crisis period," said Leonce Ndikumana, a Burundian who is the African bank's chief economist.
He said with an increasing number of investors willing to take advantage of opportunities in Africa and a fast-growing middle class, "the contemporary African landscape is not dissimilar from that of Asia a few decades ago."
The bank projected that Congo (Brazzaville) would have the fastest growing economy at 11.8 percent, followed by Angola, 8.7 percent, and Congo (Kinshasa) at 6.2 percent.
At the other end of the scale, a number of countries hit harder by the crisis will take longer to recover. They include Equatorial Guinea, minus 2.6 percent; Swaziland, 0.9 percent; and Seychelles, 1.3 percent.
Included in this group, surprisingly, is South Africa, the continent's most vibrant economy, whose growth rate is projected at 2.2 percent.
The bank said much of southern Africa's problem can be attributed to the collapse of commodity prices and the fall of export volumes. These factors led to declines in employment, exports, cash remittances, foreign direct investment and other revenues.
Throughout the economic crisis, the bank said it has played a major role helping countries and mobilizing financing from outside sources, especially the private sector.
Ndikumana said public sector lending continues to be important, but the bank wants to see the private sector broaden the base for growth in Africa.
"In the past the emphasis has been on the public sector, but that is not sufficient to reach and sustain high growth rates. Support for the private sector creates income and jobs."
Asian countries are taking advantage of the investment potential, the bank said, especially Chinese but also Korean and Indian investors.
"Chinese investment currently is very significant," said Ndikumana. "In many ways the Chinese are underwriting the industrialization of the continent." Investment from the Middle East also is increasing, including in agriculture.
The bank said it hopes that these emerging partnerships with new investors will serve as hedges against future shocks from the developed world and will broaden Africa's export base.
Blacks flourishing SOWETO, South Africa - Black South Africans are reaping the benefits of a growing economy, and at the heart of it is Soweto, where Nelson Mandela presided over the gala opening of a multimillion-dollar mall yesterday. The sprawling township that was the center of the anti-apartheid struggle is being transformed, with new houses, new parks and paved roads.
____________________________ THAT'S ALL I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THIS. BYE BYE.
Pure and simple, most black South Africans are poor, extremely poor. This is a fact and has been documented clearly. Most wealth in South Africa is concentrated in few hands among the white elites. Most blacks are the unskilled laborers because of the history of apartheid and therefore most blacks are unemployed and living below the poverty line.
The gini coefficient measures the income distribution between the haves and the have nots and South Africa has among the highest gaps in income between the two groups:
quote: South Africa has overtaken Brazil as the country with the widest gap between rich and poor, according to figures put together by a leading South African academic.
Haroon Bhorat, an economics professor at UCT, told a briefing at Parliament on Friday that South Africa was now "the most unequal society in the world" with a significant increase in income inequality.
"In the long run it is bad for growth. It is a threat to social stability and to growth itself. The long-run trend is a worrying one," he warned.
Bhorat said South Africa's Gini coefficient index - which shows the level of income inequality - stood at 0.679.
This figure is drawn from figures collated by Bhorat using Statistics SA's income and expenditure survey. The figures are based on household income in the 2005/06 year.
The coefficient has risen from the All Media and Products Survey figure of 0.66 in 2007, but is down from an uncomfortably high 0.685 in 2006.
He argued that South Africa had enjoyed a long period of growth which had sustained a growing social security bill, but the country was now in "a high deficit" environment and its ability to maintain these payments was being challenged.
No comparison. And the livestyle of whites is directly based on the oppression and subjugation of blacks. No amount of fairy tale stories of whites "deserving" their wealth because of their "hard work" should even be mentioned because it is a lie. Yet blacks want to convince themselves that they are living in a "free" world (even as blacks world wide are still primarily at the bottom of every socio-economic ladder on the planet). But this is what has happened because blacks in South Africa, following in the footsteps of Nelson Mandela the sell out, have given whites a pass on economic equality and therefore allow themselves to continue to live in poverty while everyone else lives in prosperity from the wealth they steal from Africans.
Under this current economic system which is inherently built on white privilege power and racism, blacks will stay poor and continue to slide down the scale as wealth gets concentrated even more in the hands of the white and other foreign elites. The small bump in wealth that occurs right after independence is only temporary. Wealth is only grown and sustained through direct control and ownership of land, labor and resources. Blacks don't control much of any land, labor or resources anywhere on the face of this planet. Therefore, blacks will continue to stay poor and their plight will only get worse as their populations increase. The reason being that they will be unable to sustain themselves because they don't have the control of the land and resources to do so, as this land and those resources are continually being snapped up by whites and foreigners with the complicity of sell outs in African government, leaving Africans with nothing to support their own.
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No comparison. And the livestyle of whites is directly based on the oppression and subjugation of blacks. No amount of fairy tale stories of whites "deserving" their wealth because of their "hard work" should even be mentioned because it is a lie. Yet blacks want to convince themselves that they are living in a "free" world (even as blacks world wide are still primarily at the bottom of every socio-economic ladder on the planet). But this is what has happened because blacks in South Africa, following in the footsteps of Nelson Mandela the sell out, have given whites a pass on economic equality and therefore allow themselves to continue to live in poverty while everyone else lives in prosperity from the wealth they steal from Africans.
Under this current economic system which is inherently built on white privilege power and racism, blacks will stay poor and continue to slide down the scale as wealth gets concentrated even more in the hands of the white and other foreign elites. The small bump in wealth that occurs right after independence is only temporary. Wealth is only grown and sustained through direct control and ownership of land, labor and resources. Blacks don't control much of any land, labor or resources anywhere on the face of this planet. Therefore, blacks will continue to stay poor and their plight will only get worse as their populations increase. The reason being that they will be unable to sustain themselves because they don't have the control of the land and resources to do so, as this land and those resources are continually being snapped up by whites and foreigners with the complicity of sell outs in African government, leaving Africans with nothing to support their own.
^^^ Thats real talks.
As i’ve been following the world cup footage i’ve noticed there has been an agenda in the works for some time now to push an idea that whites in SA are now marginalized, being pushed out and are now 2nd class citizens. This is not the case, the economic control is still in the same filthy hands.
I love how that one video about the wealthy black couple shows how when they are sending their child to what appears to be an expensive private school almost every child in there is white. hahaha, propaganda fail.
IMO it looks to me as though the sole purpose of this video is to discourage whites from aiding up and comers like this couple. I.E. “if you shop from this man’s shoe store your putting a white family out of a home...”
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posted
Continuing with the direction Kenndo had taken herein, the following are a section of projects of the highly ambitious and multi-tech savvy Kwadwo Safo of Ghana...
^Designed and built in the country (Ghana), this model has been named "Kantanka Obrempon" (II?), one of the two models with the same name.
More views of the vehicle...
Some might dismiss undertakings like this as mere putting together of imported stuff, when these sorts of things are being discussed about Africa; however, think again...
^At work in the foundry, making drive-train components [manifolds, engine cast, pistons, gears, etc] from molds...
-------------------- The Complete Picture of the Past tells Us what Not to Repeat Posts: 7516 | From: Somewhere on Earth | Registered: Jan 2008
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posted
Hey Explorer been awhile.. But I wish Africans while playing catch-up would develop a different energy/fuel system or adopt a clean energy system before the west in much same way most Africans skipped the the bronze age and went straight from stone to Iron or even steel.
Posts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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^Life-size mock-up of a locally built 6 cylinder engine.
^Another model, likely the "Kantanka Onantefo" I.
^The "Kantanka Obrempon" I (?).
^The "Kantanka Onantefo II".
These concepts are to pave way for the construction of a mass-manufacturing complex. Below are drawings and computerized renderings of a would-be Egyptian "electric car", given the project name of "Cairo Car"
^At this point only a concept; reportedly, no word yet on if and when a production example would be available.
And there are many more examples like those given above. What these examples do show however, is the drive and will of ordinary African folks to make things happen if and when they are given the chance, the resources and necessary [government] subsidies to do so. There is nothing "naturally" intrinsic about Africans in many cases being stripped of the ability to implement these sorts of essentials of metropolitan life and rivaling those elsewhere; they are quite simply denied the necessary apparatus to implement them by the high governing offices and international "decision makers".
Posts: 7516 | From: Somewhere on Earth | Registered: Jan 2008
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quote:Originally posted by Brada-Anansi: Hey Explorer been awhile.. But I wish Africans while playing catch-up would develop a different energy/fuel system or adopt a clean energy system before the west in much same way most Africans skipped the the bronze age and went straight from stone to Iron or even steel.
It seems like it's been awhile, since I've scaled down my postings here; I simply post when the topic matter interests me. That's been lacking for some time. There was a time here when secular and scientific matters were discussed to a considerable enough degree, but it now looks like the "Egyptology" affiliated sections of this site have reached another turning point; it seems to have become something of a theological board, alternated by trite nonsense in other occasions. Not my cup of tea. Anyway, in relation to what you just said, it's happening in select sections of the continent. There is one example provided above, and I've pointed out other examples here in a previous discussion. You see, when Africans mastered Iron and steel technology, they were largely free from all the international meddling and resource plundering that now takes place, in many cases with the help of local stooges. The forces hindering African initiatives are more complex now, and also come from outside of the continent.
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^^ Hopefully there are government programs underway to help these people, and indeed all South Africans. The white squatter camp seems comparatively well furnished compared to the dismal shacks of Soweto and other black areas in the 1970s and 1980s..
and to the squatter camps of black immigrants to SOuth Africa today. These face not only harsh poverty but vicious attacks by the local peoples.. as shown below..
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that's a lie doug,most south african blacks are not poor and most do not live like that any more.see i said you are nothing but negative news and even out of date ones as well.the articles i posted above speaks for themselves.the ones i posted are the truth.south african blacks are moving ahead.is there still poverty and could in go down faster if the wealth was a largely in black hand today?yes,but have they made majorprogress still?yes.is ther still away to go?but southa frica is nowhere where it was under what rule.blacks there will tell you if you go to visited yourself.i just have the funny felling thta whne the wealth is in mostly black hands in a few years from now,you will still be complaining that all of it should in there hands now.there is no pleasing someone lie you.the i ahve given up on you.the more truthful info is for folks that want to know where is south africa at today basically and where it is going.
the most correct picture would be in that video blacks without borders i have posted,and since then or before even most blacks in soweto are not poor,or at least there is a large non-poor group.soweto is being build up fast as well.i guess you do not like that news,well to bad.
that's all from me about this and my last time coming back here in this thread for real . bye.
Posts: 2688 | Registered: Jul 2004
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_________________________________ The Black Middle Class: fact or fiction? in south africa
"The Black Middle Class is a mirage,” a caller emphatically announced as I tuned into a radio talk show recently. What was being discussed was BusinessMap’s recent research report BEE 2007 - Empowerment and its Critics. The report analyses the number of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) equity deals that have taken place over the past year. However the interview didn't really focus on this aspect, but rather around whether a significant Black Middle Class was emerging in South Africa.
As many callers phoned in to say it was a mirage, as phoned in to say it was a reality.
Clearly it would be inappropriate to use as the measure the number of BEE deals brokered, but are there other measures that give real evidence of this emerging group of people?
Let's begin by agreeing that the middle-class is generally accepted as Living Standards Measures (LSM’s) 7, 8 & 9, families that earn between R6,880 and R12,647 per month. LSM’s are researched annually by the South African Advertising Research Foundation and range from Level 1 to Level 10 with Level 1 and 2 being extreme poverty, Level 3 being poor, Level 4,5 & 6 being lower income, Level 7, 8 & 9 being middle income and Level 10 being upper income.
The chart below was produced by the South African Advertising Research Foundation and illustrates how the demographics of families residing at each level have changed between 1994 and 2006.
SA Good News"The rich have become richer and the poor, poorer,” another caller announced as I listened further on the radio talk show. But the table above tells a different story. Yes, the richer have become richer, but the poor have not become poorer. On the contrary, it is estimated that some 500,000 families have moved out of LSM’s 1, 2 & 3 in to LSM’s 4, 5 & 6 and that some 400,000 families have moved out of LSM’s 4, 5 & 6 into LSM’s 7, 8 & 9. What has happened though is that the rich have become richer faster than the poor have become less poor. This was covered recently in the Sunday Times in a report which stated that South Africa is one of the most upwardly mobile societies in the world!
Is there evidence of this? Absolutely. Car sales in South Africa have gone from 365,000 new units in 2003 to 730,000 new units sold last year (2,000 new cars on our roads each day!). What’s more, eighty percent of the buyers were black. The sale of home appliances is also exploding and our property price improvement tops the global rankings. While there is a reasonable supply of houses in the R2m plus bracket at the top end, and in the R50 000 to R400 000 bracket at the bottom end, there is a chronic shortage of mid-priced houses - further evidence of a growing middle class. Once again, most of these aspirant owners are black. There are an estimated 23 million cell phone users in the country. The tax net has grown from 2.3 million taxpayers in 1994 to nearly 7 million today, and this is expected to grow to 10,5 million by 2010. Do the maths - the numbers indicate a growing middle class!
Need further evidence? Read the article in the FM entitled Soweto rising which tells us that there has been a huge economic turnaround in Soweto, most evident in the dramatic growth in retail space. Shopping malls are popping up everywhere, with more planned. Until about five years ago, infrastructural development and private investment was considered too risky. This perception changed when studies showed that the living standards of many blacks were moving up to the “middle class level”. Various malls around Soweto are now providing shopping and entertainment previously only available in the leafy suburbs.
Our economy is now growing at around 5%, whereas our population is predicted to stabilise at between 45m and 48m people over the next 20 years. (Our population is growing at less than 1% per annum, not because of HIV/Aids - although that has an influence - but mostly because of rapid urbanisation and improved education opportunities). Our economy is growing five times faster than our population and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out what the implications are. Most economists feel that our economic prospects will remain good for the next 20 years!
Clearly we still have a massive problem in respect of poverty in South Africa with at least 20% of our population languishing in LSM levels 1,2 & 3, but 10 years ago that number was approximately 40%. I have written much about poverty previously and I certainly do not underestimate the challenge that this presents. Having said that, the fact that the government spends R80bn a year on social grants, benefiting approximately 11 million adults and children “at the bottom of the pile” (surprisingly this is not taking into account when poverty levels are measured) must be factored into the "poverty debate", and “measure” for that matter.
Is a middle-class important in our fledgling democracy? Well, what is happening in South Africa, unlike many other African countries is that economic opportunity, as opposed to political connectedness, is increasingly being realised as an opportunity for prosperity. It is often said that in developing countries, politics drives economics, whereas in developed countries, the opposite holds true. Obviously, the greater the size of the middle-class, the more this pendulum will shift in favour of the latter.
It goes without saying that middle-class people have a lifestyle they wish to protect against the uncertainties of boom/ bust economic practice, rampant inflation and deteriorating currency valuation. Hopefully they will use their vote to ensure this.
The middle-class has a vested interest in the future, the future of their children, of schooling, of health institutions, of infrastructure, of political stability and of economic well-being. This creates upward pressure on delivery; better shops, higher quality entertainment, working infrastructure, good schools, safe amenities, and professional healthcare.
THIS IS WHERE JOBS FOR THE “LOST GENERATION” ARE CREATED.
The South African economy is increasingly becoming service oriented, only 12% of GDP is contributed to by the mining sector, and 20% of GDP by manufacturing. A substantial 68% of GDP is therefore contributed to by the services sector.
What kind of people are employed there? Skilled professionals.
What group of people is unemployed in South Africa? Largely unskilled people with a poor education, the "lost generation" as they are often referred to. How will they be employed? By middle-class people who have a requirement for the services they can offer as waiters, shop assistants, domestic helpers, gardeners, cleaners, security guards etc. (These may be considered to be ordinary jobs, but they do represent the first rung on the ladder out of the poverty trap and they do give the incumbents a real chance to give their children a chance. For more on this, read Jeffrey Sachs’ book The End of Poverty.)
It is often said that for every skilled person entering the economy between four and six unskilled jobs are created. That is why the growth of a middle-class is so important.
Various estimates indicate that our economy currently has a million jobs unfilled. (Wake up Home Affairs, go away those naysayers who argue that whites can't get jobs!). Imagine if these jobs could be filled in the next five years. Imagine how that would dent unemployment!
Is there a growing middle-class? Absolutely.
Is it the solution to poverty and unemployment? Only partially.
Is it good for our country? Fundamentally.
Will it continue to grow? Sure, provided we can produce the skills and maintain economic growth levels and between
between 4% and 6%. ____________________________________________ SA's big spenders drive economic growth
Wednesday, 07 November 2007
Over the past seven years South Africa’s black population has steadily risen in high income earning brackets and has also become South Africa’s biggest spenders, aMarket Research (BMR).according to the University of South Africa’s Bureau of
The BMR’s integrated model of the South African population, labour market and income and expenditure revealed that the white population still remains the wealthiest in the country. But the survey also shows some parity between black and white income earners particularly in the R100K - R300K bracket. Blacks account for 1.4 million of this group and whites, 1.3 million. Project Leader Professor Carl van Aardt highlights this as an
indication of dramatic economic growth in the black population.
The report also shows that the black population leads the pack in household expenditure, spending R550 billion this year, followed by whites whose expenditure amounted to R506 billion Van Aardt believes that the BMR’s investigation into income and expenditure is a more realistic assessment of the
affluence of South African consumers, the sophistication of the markets and a more comprehensive estimate of the actual size of the country’s GDP and thus allowing for more accurate future projections.
We can expect South Africa’s current growth rate at 4.5% to sustain itself over the medium term due to the fact for more accurate future projections. “We can expect South Africa’s current growth rate at 4.5% to sustain itself over the medium term due to the fact South Africa is a consumption driven economy and black consumers will keep growing,” says van Aardt. Medium to long term growth will be driven by government capital expenditure as we progress towards the 2010
Van Aardt confidently states that South Africa is not headed in the direction of Zimbabwe. “The Zimbabwean economy is dependant on basic commodities, agriculture and mining while the South African economy is very diversified. Even if one sector took a knock there would be other factors in place to hold our economy together.” Though we face positive prospects, van Aardt warns that some of South Africa’s biggest problems could threaten economic growth. Both foreign portfolio and direct investment are vulnerable to crime. A loss in these foreign investments could see South Africa experience a big “economic hiccup”. Though the number of historically disadvantaged South Africans moving into higher earning brackets is on the increase, “the number of people in poverty has stagnated. We have people trapped in poverty,” says Van Aardt. He attributes this to the skills shortage in South Africa and the mismatch between skills available and skills required. ___________________________________________
Bank: strong economic gains for African economies HARRY DUNPHY 0 Comments Published: April 23, 2010
WASHINGTON (AP) — The economic news out of Africa is good, spurred by strong demand from global markets for African oil, minerals and agricultural products.
The African Development Bank reports the region is one of the fastest growing in the world, with a projected overall growth rate of more than 4 percent in 2010, more than double that of most developed countries still recovering from the economic meltdown that began in late 2008.
The crisis did have an impact on many African economies, which were registering growth rates of more than 6 percent before it struck.
"If the world economy and world trade continue to recover, and oil and non-oil commodity prices remain close to current levels, the outlook for continuing growth in 2010 is extremely promising, progressing toward the almost 6 percent of the pre-crisis period," said Leonce Ndikumana, a Burundian who is the African bank's chief economist.
He said with an increasing number of investors willing to take advantage of opportunities in Africa and a fast-growing middle class, "the contemporary African landscape is not dissimilar from that of Asia a few decades ago."
Blacks flourishing SOWETO, South Africa - Black South Africans are reaping the benefits of a growing economy, and at the heart of it is Soweto, where Nelson Mandela presided over the gala opening of a multimillion-dollar mall yesterday. The sprawling township that was the center of the anti-apartheid struggle is being transformed, with new houses, new parks and paved roads.
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black poverty in south africa is about 30% or less THAT'S ALL I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THIS.
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