Millions more living in poverty
Black Africans and Coloureds hardest hit, report shows
South Africa has more people living in extreme poverty than it did in 2011.
This is according to a report released yesterday by Statistics SA that showed the number of individuals living below the 2015 food poverty line of R441 per person per month rocketed to 13.8 million in 2015, from 11 million in 2011.
The Poverty Trends in SA: an Examination of Absolute Poverty Between 2006 and 2015 report, noted that the hardesthit provinces remained Limpopo and Eastern Cape while Gauteng and Western Cape remain two of the richest and had better job prospects.
Mpumalanga has been the only province to experience a continuous decline in poverty between 2006 and 2015.
The report showed that Eastern Cape (42.8%) and Northern Cape (40.1%) had the highest percentage of poor households, with more children receiving child support grants than in other provinces.
The report also pointed out that the number of black Africans and Coloureds who are living in poverty has grown while poverty levels in other racial groups had decreased.
It said the proportion of females living below the lower bound poverty line (LBPL) jumped to 41.7% in 2015 from 38.1% in 2011.
Individuals at the LBPL do not have command over enough resources to purchase or consume both adequate food and non-food items, and were therefore forced to sacrifice food to obtain essential non-food items.
“As observed with females, the proportion of males who were living below the LBPL also rose between 2011 and 2015 to 38.2% [an increase of 10.1%],” read the report.
It also showed that between 2011 and 2015, “the proportions of black Africans and Coloureds living below the LBPL in South Africa increased from 43.4% to 47.1% for black Africans and from 20.2% to 23.3% for Coloureds”.
“The highest poverty gaps are observed within the black African and Coloured populations. Although the poverty gap for black African males has always been lower than that of black African females, both sexes have gaps that are above the national poverty gap based on the LBPL in 2011 and 2015.
“Before 2011, there were reductions in the poverty gaps, and this shows that the position of poor black African and Coloured individuals was improving and moving closer to the poverty line over time.
“Unfortunately, the poverty gap for both population groups experienced an increase since 2011,” it said.
The report noted that white and Indian or Asian populations have very low poverty gaps with both population groups reflecting poverty gaps at 2.2% or less since 2006.
“This highlights that these groups require less intervention and resources from the state to help them graduate out of poverty compared to the needs of black Africans and Coloureds,” it said.