SA world’s most unequal country – World Bank

SOUTH Africa is the most unequal country in the world, according to a new report by the World Bank that listed 149 countries.

The report analysed South Africa’s post-apartheid progress‚ focusing on the period between 2006 and 2015.

It found the top 1% of South Africans own 70.9% of the country’s wealth while the bottom 60% control 7% of the country’s assets.

Neighbours Namibia and Botswana were second and third. Zambia‚ Central African Re- public‚ Lesotho‚ Swaziland‚ Brazil‚ Colombia and Panama completed the top 10.

More than half of South Africans (55.5%), or 30 million people, live below the national poverty line of R992 a month. This number has increased since 2011.

The groups worst affected by poverty are black South Africans‚ the unemployed‚ the less educated‚ female-headed households‚ large families and children.

The official unemployment rate was 27.7% in the third quarter of last year while youth unemployment was 38.6%.

“Poverty remains concentrated in previously disadvantaged areas‚ such as the former homelands,” the report found.

Former African Union head Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said in the report that inequality remained stubbornly high.

“South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world‚ with consumption inequality having increased since 1994.

“Wealth inequality is high and has been rising over time,” she said. “A polarised labour market results in high wage inequality.”

World Bank South African director Paul Noumba Um said South Africa had a dual economy – a small, high-skilled‚ high-productivity economy, and a large low-skilled‚ low-productivity one.

World Bank southern Africa economist Victor Sulla told NPR: “The people at the bottom in South Africa get wages comparable to the people who live in Bangladesh. “It’s very‚ very poor. “If you take the top 10%, it’s a very high level even by European or US standards.

“And we are talking just about employees, not the super-rich.”