Poverty far from over, says Stats SA
The drought, low economic growth and rising unemployment over the past few years reverse gains in SA's fight against poverty
Policy uncertainty, weak economic growth, high unemployment, rising prices and lower investment are threatening to undermine progress SA has made in its fight against poverty. Remarkable strides to fight poverty have been made since the country obtained majority rule in 1994, but the drought, low economic growth and rising unemployment over the past few years has reversed those gains, resulting in a poverty ratio of one in every two South Africans in 2015. This comes after one of the biggest democratic triumphs, which led to poverty falling dramatically from 66.6% (31.6-million people) in 2006 to 53.2% (27.3-million people) in 2011. But according to the latest Poverty Trends in SA, released by Statistics SA on Tuesday, the figure jumped to 55.5% (30.4-million people) in 2015. The figures in the report also suggest SA is unlikely to meet its National Development Plan (NDP) goal to eliminate poverty by 2030. At least one in two South Africans was poor in 2015. Speaking about the NDP g...
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