Are poverty, inequality and unemployment here to stay in South Africa?

Abstract

This study demonstrates the resilience of poverty, inequality and unemployment (PIU) in South Africa, despite several programmes and policies introduced to reduce and/or eradicate them. It further provides an overview of the suite of programmes and policies introduced from 1994 for the purpose of demonstrating what has been done. Given their inability to eliminate these challenges, seemingly, some of the programmes and policies have not been decisive enough to address the causes, which include unequal redistribution of the country’s resources, deep structural inequalities and structural unemployment. Using narrative literature review as a research methodology, the study probes and critically analyses the PIU data. It draws attention to the fact that in 1994, unemployment was 20% and 32.9% in 2024; meanwhile, the 1994 poverty rate was estimated at 24% and the 2023 estimation was 21.6%. The 1994 Gini coefficient was 0.59 and the 2023 one was 0.63. Evidently, despite the efforts over the thirty years of democracy to address these challenges, the soft-hands approach has not worked. Literature suggests that unless something extraordinary is done, the next thirty years will also be characterised by similar challenges. As such, this study recommends constitutional adjustments to enable the urgent need for radical reform.