South Africa has been plagued for centuries by racial inequality and economic disparity. Blacks were relegated to mere servants of the white population. Apartheid, lasting from 1948 to 1994 furthered this gap between the races. When the apartheid-supporting Nationalist government lost its hold on power in 1994, the new ANC spoke of economic prosperity for all South Africans; however, economic disparity continues to plague South Africa, and there is still a high correlation between total income and race. South Africa has one of the highest Gini coefficients in the world, a measure of inequality in income. From a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 being perfect equality and 100 being complete inequality, South Africa’s Gini coefficient is 63. In order for South Africa to become a more prosperous and successful country, it must invest heavily in programs for economic and infrastructure development because growing infrastructure and the economy doing so will benefit both the government and the people, it is also a big priority as much of our infrastructure is falling apart, and doing so will raise the standard of living that the people enjoy. We can invest in our economy through both large projects and through smaller loans to individuals to help them start their own businesses (microlending); therefore, due to the high priority of investing in our economy, it is necessary that 40% of the grant go to fund economic and infrastructure development; it is necessary because big infrastructure projects provide basic provisions for people to build a better and more advanced society on, whereas smaller projects focus on individual people and their lives. By attempting to improve the economy on both the governmental level and the individual level, it...
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Inequality matters because the degree of inequality coupled with national income determines the extent of poverty (Perkins). The 1990s showed the first signs of narrowing inequality since the Industrial Revolution. Despite recent progress in inequality reduction, the average inequality within countries is greater now than it was 25 years ago. Latin America, the Caribbean, and sub-Saharan Africa stand out as regions with exceptionally high inequality. For example, the global poverty gap is about 3%, while the gap in sub-Saharan Africa is around 16% (WB REPORT). Moreover, by 2001, the poverty gap had fallen to single digits in every region but sub-Saharan Africa, where it actually increased (Perkins). Typically, this increase in inequality occurs because the income share of the top income groups expanding rapidly (WB REPORT). Other causes of inequality involve a legacy of racist policies (e.g., apartheid in South Africa) and mineral wealth (Perkins). A significant amount of falling global inequality has resulted from the rapid growth of China and India, two populous countries that achieved remarkable economic growth in recent history (WB
The word apartheid comes in two forms, one being the system of racial segregation in South Africa, and the other form is the form that only those who were affected by apartheid can relate to, the deeper, truer, more horrifying, saddening and realistic form. The apartheid era truly began when white South Africans went to the polls to vote. Although the United Party and National Party were extremely close, the National party won. Since they won, they gained more seats and slowly began to eliminate the black’s involvement with the political system. With the National Party in power, they made black South African life miserable which continues to exist in South Africa’s society today. To decrease the political power of black South Africans even more, they were divided along tribal lines. During apartheid in South Africa, The National Party, along with the help of the white social classes damaged the social and political life of black South Africans which continue to leave a devastating effect on South Africa today.
1.) The Democratic Republic of Congo, with a population of over 75 million people is currently the second largest country in Africa. However, despite being this large of a country it is the poorest country in Africa and in the world, experiencing extreme poverty. The Democratic Republic of Congo has the lowest gross domestic product per capita in the world, which is defined as a measure of the total output of a country that takes the GDP and divides it by the number of people in the country, in this case the Democratic Republic of Congo. GDP per capita helps determine the global success of a country and portrays the country’s overall standard of living,
The economic conditions of levels of income in Cape Town are seen as mostly lower upper class. Cape Town is known to be South Africa’s second-richest city preceding Johannesburg. Most of Cape Town’s economic activity is steered by small, medium and micro enterprises (City of Cape Town, 2014). Other economic drivers include; finance, insurance, real estate and business services and business services; manufacturing; wholesale and retail trade, catering and accommodation.
Arora, V. (n.d), Economic growth in post-apartheid South Africa: A growth-Accounting analysis. Inquiry, 14: 13-22.
“Lack of adequate income or the assets needed to generate income. Lack of employment. Without access to land or the ability to grow their own food, access to dependable wage labor emerges as a major factor defining poverty. Those who do not have secure jobs are regarded as poor- South Africa 1998. Poor have numerous small, often dangerous jobs, rather than one job” (Chambers, 1983).
South Africa is the country that our group was given the opportunity to discuss in terms of their international trade and financial markets. Specifically, the topics of our discussion will begin with the South African Background, which will go into details such as historical and demographic information, Global Economy and how it relates to South African economy, and Current events in the country. The information will then transition from Background into the International Trade and Finance portion. The International Trade and Finance portion will include the major trading partners, top imports and exports, and the financial markets. The final portion will be the South African Policy Analysis, including information on the past and present policies, as well as tariff and quota information.
Microfinance has been of a great interest in the recent past, particularly in the context of reaching the poorest families in a more effective way. The word microfinance is being used very often in development vocabulary today. Although the word is literally comprised of two words: micro and finance which literally mean small credit; the concept of microfinance goes beyond the provision of small credit to the poor. Christen (1997) defines microfinance as 'the means of providing a variety of financial services to the poor based on market-driven and commercial approaches'(Christen R.P., 1997). This definition encompasses provision of other financial services like savings, money transfers, payments, remittances, and insurance,
Article 1 It is about the development bank of Southern Africa. It is helping by supporting the local government sector in South Africa with financing and implementation of infrastructure projects. Its helps with infrastructure for new building as well as refurbishment. Its responsibility is providing basic salary services such as water, sanitation, electrification, waste management and roads to local communities. Increasing levels to access to grid based on electricity as well as clean portable wate...
With the dismal picture of state-owned rural finance organizations, micro-finance nongovernmental institutions are growing to meet the credit needs of small producers in many countries. Reports indicate that they now meet the credit demand of 8-10 million people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.4 Many of these organizations are subsidized not for high loan default costs but for higher transaction costs associated with group-based lending and other social intermediation cost...
When a country has an extremely low per capita income, tiny middle class, and lack of skill the transition to democracy is rare according to Snyder (72). The transition occurred in South Africa because the people were desperate for change. The economic struggle is still apparent in South Africa with a lack of education, thousands of unfilled jobs, and small middle class (The Economist). According to the South Africa’s Gini coefficient, a scale measuring inequality, South Africa is rated one of the most economically unequal countries in the world (The Economist). With economic and educational disparities, South Africa is a frail democracy that is being closely watched and assisted by pro-democracy organizations.
Economic development is highly dependent on the natural resources for food and energy production, which inputs to manufacturing, and to absorbing wastes and pollutants. Thus, there is a high dependency on farming. However, South Africa is not rich in agriculture resources; ...
According to Collier & Dollar, (2001) economic growth is normally dependent on the nature and quality of economic policies that a country implements. In South Africa, soon after apartheid the government have tried to wrestle with the multiple objectives which are namely to reduce poverty, increase employment, increase international trade as well as increasing the rate of economic growth. According to Mohr et al, (2015) the macroeconomic objectives are used to assess the performance of the economy. The five macroeconomic objectives that will be discussed in this assignment are firstly the economic growth, full employment, price stability, balance of payments and equitable distribution of income. The assignment will then evaluate each of the objectives of macroeconomic growth and asses where South Africa as a country is performing on each of these respective points.
Socio economic issues are all the problems we face every day in our daily lives and some of the problems affect our businesses and we should always be ready and be able to face the challenges.
Conceptualizing Corruption in South Africa Conceptualizing Corruption in South Africa Amr Taha El Baba Lebanese American University SPECIFIC PURPOSE: To persuade my audience that corruption could cripple the progress in South African societies. Crime and corruption are not relevant to the degree of poverty present in a country as some of you might think. Corruption is a social phenomenon that every society deals with, regardless of the level of development in the country. What makes corruption a dangerous social phenomenon is its ability to adapt to the conditions present in any country.