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SA folk are richer since 1994 but, sadly, not healthier
Donwald Pressly, Business Report
2007-07-05
Cape Town - South Africans have become wealthier and there are fewer very poor people under the ANC government, although there is strong evidence that the gap between the poor and the rich is widening, according to the presidency's Development Indicators mid-term review.
The figures, released yesterday by Joel Netshitenzhe, the head of policy
co-ordination and advisory services in the presidency, show that the proportion
of the population living below R3 000 a year has dropped from 50 percent of the
population in 1993, when the National Party was in power, to a low of 43.2
percent last year. It peaked at 53.1 percent in 1996, two years into the ANC's
rule, but has dropped steadily since. But while South Africans overall may be
getting wealthier, they have not been getting healthier.
HIV prevalence - measured by clinic visits by pregnant women - had increased
from 7.6 percent in 1994 to 30.2 percent in 2005, dropping slightly to 29.1
percent in 2006. Tuberculosis cases rose from 90 292 reported in 1994 to 315 315
in 2006. Netshitenzhe noted the strong growth of HIV figures in the 1990s but
said these figures were now levelling off. The review notes that the Gini
coefficient - which measures income inequality - increased over most of the
period from 1993 to 2006. It was 0.672 in 1993 and 0.685 in 2006. The
coefficient ranges from 0, representing no inequality, to 1, representing
complete inequality. The good news, is that the number of people at the lowest
income level have been cut substantially. Those living in the Living Standards
Measure (LSM) 1, who earned about R742 a month on average, were about 3.4
million people in 2001/02.
This number dropped to 1.89 million people in 2005/06, when the average LSM 1
income was estimated at just under R1 000. Netshitenzhe noted that the number of
people living in LSM categories from 4 to 10, the highest category, had risen,
reflecting the growth of the middle classes. The number of people
living in LSM 10 was 1.45 million in 2001/02 and 1.85 million in 2005/06. The
average monthly incomes were R13 416 and R19 817, respectively. The report
acknowledges that the 2014 goal of 14 percent unemployment depends on speeding
up economic growth to 6 percent between 2010 and 2014, increased investment in
labour-intensive sectors, expansion of public works programmes and other second
economy interventions.
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