Inequality in post-apartheid South Africa

Negotiations to end apartheid began in 1990 and continued until President Nelson Mandela's electoral victory as South Africa's first Black president in the first democratic all-races general election of 1994.^[1] This signified the legislative end of apartheid in South Africa, a system of widespread racially-based segregation to enforce almost complete separation of white and Black races in South Africa.^[2] Before the legislative end of apartheid, whites had held almost complete control over all political and socioeconomic power in South Africa during apartheid, only allowing acquiescent Black traditional leaders to participate in facades of political power.^[1] Repercussions from the decades of apartheid continue to resonate through every facet of South African life, despite copious amounts of legislation meant to alleviate inequalities.^[3]

Post-apartheid South Africa struggles to correct the social inequalities created by decades of apartheid.^[1] White nepotism remains a considerable obstacle to economic gain and political influence for Black South Africans.^[4][5] Despite a growing gross domestic product, indices for poverty, unemployment, income inequality, life expectancy and land ownership, have declined.^[3][6] No industry in the economy has over 50% ownership by Black individuals in terms of their share even though 81.4% of the South African population is Black.^[4][6] The end of the apartheid system in South Africa has largely not changed the socioeconomic stratification by race.^[5] A small subset of the Black population have been able to create a Black middle class that did not exist during apartheid, but otherwise, the large majority of Black people in South Africa have yet to experience a difference in economic class since apartheid was abolished.^[3][4] International measures of inequality, such as the Gini coefficient, report that inequalities within races has greatly increased since the end of apartheid, even when overall inequalities are slightly improved.^[3][5] High levels of Black unemployment coupled with a rising Black population remains one of the biggest problems, particularly for women and the uneducated or unskilled.^[5][6]

South Africa's most recent census in 2022 highlighted areas of supposed improvement, such as greater access to electricity, piped water, education, and refuse collection services, but was criticized for missing 31% of the largely rural population, undoubtedly skewing the results more positively in the government's favor.^[3][6] The South African government has been denounced because it does not have an official poverty line, preventing accurate measures from being assessed.^[4][5] The most recent census did not include measures of income previously used to define poverty in prior censuses nor did it give an official population percentage, but international organizations have placed the percentage of South African people experiencing poverty to at least 50% and possibly even higher after the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.^[4][5][6]