IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/deveza/v36y2019i6p788-802.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Poverty and inequality in South Africa: critical reflections

Author

Listed:
  • David Francis
  • Edward Webster

Abstract

South Africa is a paradox; on the one hand, it is one of the most unequal countries in the world. Half of all South Africans continue to live in poverty, economic growth has stagnated and inflation remains high, while the unemployment rate continues to climb towards 30%. On the other hand, it has one of the most progressive constitutions in the world, with a bill of rights that foregrounds expanded socioeconomic rights. We provide an overview of the latest statistics on poverty and inequality in light of overarching economic policies, and the socioeconomic guarantees of the Constitution. We argue that South Africa’s inability to meaningfully address the high levels of inequality is due to insufficient attention to the way power reproduces inequality. We present a definition of power that includes social and market power, and emphasise the importance of a theory of power in understanding the reproduction of inequality.

Suggested Citation

  • David Francis & Edward Webster, 2019. "Poverty and inequality in South Africa: critical reflections," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(6), pages 788-802, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:deveza:v:36:y:2019:i:6:p:788-802
    DOI: 10.1080/0376835X.2019.1666703
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/0376835X.2019.1666703
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/0376835X.2019.1666703?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fabio Gaetano Santeramo & Lerato Phali, 2023. "On the impact of provincial development policies in South Africa," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(6), pages 1137-1152, November.
    2. Umakrishnan Kollamparambil & Mlungisi Ndlovu, 2023. "Assessing the Income and Subjective Wellbeing Relationship Across Sub-national Developmental Contexts," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 769-790, February.
    3. Sobratee, N. & Davids, R. & Chinzila, C. B. & Mabhaudhi, Tafadzwanashe & Scheelbeek, P. & Modi, A. T. & Dangour, A. D. & Slotow, R., 2022. "Visioning a food system for an equitable transition towards sustainable diets—a South African perspective," Papers published in Journals (Open Access), International Water Management Institute, pages 1-14(6):328.
    4. Calvin Mudzingiri & Gibson Mudiriza & Getrude Jana & Regret Sunge, 2024. "The effect of local climatic conditions on household consumption: a case study of South Africa," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-16, December.
    5. Doctor S. Nkosi & Thembani Moyo & Innocent Musonda, 2022. "Unlocking Land for Urban Agriculture: Lessons from Marginalised Areas in Johannesburg, South Africa," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-17, October.
    6. Adediran, Olanrewaju Adewole, 2024. "The effect of women's decision-making on child nutritional outcomes in South Africa," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    7. Loss, Georg & Naicker, Sara & Richter, Linda & Fink, Günther, 2024. "Early life determinants of social disparities among young adults: A longitudinal study in vulnerable communities in South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    8. Eleanor Beth Whyle & Jill Olivier, 2024. "Health system reform and path-dependency: how ideas constrained change in South Africa’s national health insurance policy process," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 57(3), pages 663-690, September.
    9. Frederik Booysen & Ferdi Botha & Sevias Guvuriro, 2022. "Intermarriage on Subjective Social Status and Spousal Dissimilarity in Life Satisfaction of Co-resident Heterosexual South African Couples," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(6), pages 2635-2662, August.
    10. Paul Oluwatosin Bello & Adewale A. Olutola, 2022. "Effective Response to Human Trafficking in South Africa: Law as a Toothless Bulldog," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(1), pages 21582440211, January.
    11. Alf Gunvald Nilsen, 2021. "Give James Ferguson a Fish," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 52(1), pages 3-25, January.
    12. Jiang, Ping-Chuan, 2024. "National ESG index update: An assessment of the G20 countries," Innovation and Green Development, Elsevier, vol. 3(2).
    13. Koch, Steven F. & Nkuna, Blessings & Ye, Yuxiang, 2024. "Income elasticity of residential electricity consumption in rural South Africa," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    14. Frederich Kirsten & Ilse Botha & Mduduzi Biyase & Marinda Pretorius, 2023. "Determinants of Subjective Social Status in South Africa," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 168(1), pages 1-24, August.
    15. Odile Mackett, 2022. "Decent Work in the South African Macroeconomy: Who are The Winners and Losers?," Humanistic Management Journal, Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 277-305, October.
    16. Malkamäki, Arttu & Ylä-Anttila, Tuomas & Brockhaus, Maria & Toppinen, Anne & Wagner, Paul M., 2021. "Unity in diversity? When advocacy coalitions and policy beliefs grow trees in South Africa," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    17. Nafiisa Sobratee & Rashieda Davids & Chuma B. Chinzila & Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi & Pauline Scheelbeek & Albert T. Modi & Alan D. Dangour & Rob Slotow, 2022. "Visioning a Food System for an Equitable Transition towards Sustainable Diets—A South African Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-23, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:deveza:v:36:y:2019:i:6:p:788-802. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CDSA20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.