Poverty in ZA
Poverty in ZA
By Gavin Glassman
In 2017, my family took a trip to South Africa. My mom is from Cape Town, which was our destination. We were having a great time. We visited all kinds of beautiful places, such as Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens. Several days into our trip, we started to see the upsetting side of society, and when we went through the Langa township, it raised the question; is Apartheid really over?
First, we had to get past the walls surrounding the shantytown. These walls were painted with inspiring messages, which show the toughness of the residents, who deserve all the praise in the world. Not only do they deserve such recognition, but they also deserve much better conditions than those in which they are forced to live. But once we got past that wall, every step taken came with a new realization of the world in which we live.
First, it was the small metal shacks, which served as housing. Not one of the shacks was much larger than a full bathroom. Yet these people were being forced to live in them. They didn’t have easy access to electricity, water, or anything else that we in the US take for granted. They also had to hang their clothes outside to dry, along with the other people living around them.
Then, there were the larger buildings. We passed a church which was dwarfed by the churches around my home, New York. And there was the school. An image that will forever be cemented in my mind. An image that is the driving force behind my efforts to make the world a better place.
Upon our first steps through the door, we were greeted by some of the happiest kids I had ever seen. They were ecstatic just to see people. Social interaction was such a big part of their lives. It had to be, as they were living in a confined space. Cribs took up an entire room.
This experience shows the cultural divide. Only 0.1% of its population is white, with 99.1% being black.1 It indicates that there is still work to be done. We need to work towards ending racial segregation. We also need to work towards ending poverty.
Poverty is a massive problem in the Republic of South Africa, which is still somewhat recovering from Apartheid. It is a significant problem for “Black Africans” and “Coloureds” (as they are referred to in the national census), who are still feeling the effects of racial segregation. The discrimination and systematic racism are evident at this point. Apartheid may have ended 27 years ago, but things still seem to worsen.
South Africa has the highest Gini index (which measures economic inequality) globally, as estimated by World Bank.2 This goes to show that significant steps need to be taken to solve the problem. Different groups are lacking opportunities. However, progress is happening in some non-economic areas. For example, every South African president so far has been Black.
But racial inequality isn’t the only problem. Poverty is spreading across the nation. In 2015, 49.2% of the adult population lived below the upper-bound poverty line.3. Think about that for a second. Almost half of the adults in South Africa were living in poverty. Compare this to the poverty rate in the US in 2020, which was 11.4%.4 But South Africa does have fewer people, so the amount is not that different. France, for example, has a population of only 6 million more people. But the percentage of people who are living below the poverty line is 14%.5 That’s 8.8 million people compared to the 17.3 million in South Africa.
So let’s do our part to end the problem of poverty. It may have to be done one nation at a time, but it needs to be done. It starts by spreading awareness. That was a significant aim of this. To spread awareness of what is going on. It’s hard for us to see this, living in a place where this doesn’t exist to the same extent.
WORKS CITED:
1“Langa.” Wikipedia, 14 June 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langa. Accessed 20 Dec. 2021.
2“Gini Index (World Bank Estimate) | Data.” Data.worldbank.org,
data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.POV.GINI?end=2019&most_recent_value_desc=false&start=20 19&view=map&year=2014. Accessed 19 Dec. 2021.
3 Statistics South Africa. “Five Facts about Poverty in South Africa | Statistics South Africa.” Statssa.gov.za, 4 Apr. 2019, www.statssa.gov.za/?p=12075.
4 United States Census Bureau. “Income and Poverty in the United States: 2020.” The United States Census Bureau, 14 Sept. 2021,
www.census.gov/library/publications/2021/demo/p60-273.html.
5“Poverty Rates in France - Break Poverty Foundation.” Break Poverty Foundation, 5 July 2019, breakpoverty.com/en/poverty-rates-in-france/.
By Gavin Glassman
In 2017, my family took a trip to South Africa. My mom is from Cape Town, which was our destination. We were having a great time. We visited all kinds of beautiful places, such as Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens. Several days into our trip, we started to see the upsetting side of society, and when we went through the Langa township, it raised the question; is Apartheid really over?
First, we had to get past the walls surrounding the shantytown. These walls were painted with inspiring messages, which show the toughness of the residents, who deserve all the praise in the world. Not only do they deserve such recognition, but they also deserve much better conditions than those in which they are forced to live. But once we got past that wall, every step taken came with a new realization of the world in which we live.
First, it was the small metal shacks, which served as housing. Not one of the shacks was much larger than a full bathroom. Yet these people were being forced to live in them. They didn’t have easy access to electricity, water, or anything else that we in the US take for granted. They also had to hang their clothes outside to dry, along with the other people living around them.
Then, there were the larger buildings. We passed a church which was dwarfed by the churches around my home, New York. And there was the school. An image that will forever be cemented in my mind. An image that is the driving force behind my efforts to make the world a better place.
Upon our first steps through the door, we were greeted by some of the happiest kids I had ever seen. They were ecstatic just to see people. Social interaction was such a big part of their lives. It had to be, as they were living in a confined space. Cribs took up an entire room.
This experience shows the cultural divide. Only 0.1% of its population is white, with 99.1% being black.1 It indicates that there is still work to be done. We need to work towards ending racial segregation. We also need to work towards ending poverty.
Poverty is a massive problem in the Republic of South Africa, which is still somewhat recovering from Apartheid. It is a significant problem for “Black Africans” and “Coloureds” (as they are referred to in the national census), who are still feeling the effects of racial segregation. The discrimination and systematic racism are evident at this point. Apartheid may have ended 27 years ago, but things still seem to worsen.
South Africa has the highest Gini index (which measures economic inequality) globally, as estimated by World Bank.2 This goes to show that significant steps need to be taken to solve the problem. Different groups are lacking opportunities. However, progress is happening in some non-economic areas. For example, every South African president so far has been Black.
But racial inequality isn’t the only problem. Poverty is spreading across the nation. In 2015, 49.2% of the adult population lived below the upper-bound poverty line.3. Think about that for a second. Almost half of the adults in South Africa were living in poverty. Compare this to the poverty rate in the US in 2020, which was 11.4%.4 But South Africa does have fewer people, so the amount is not that different. France, for example, has a population of only 6 million more people. But the percentage of people who are living below the poverty line is 14%.5 That’s 8.8 million people compared to the 17.3 million in South Africa.
So let’s do our part to end the problem of poverty. It may have to be done one nation at a time, but it needs to be done. It starts by spreading awareness. That was a significant aim of this. To spread awareness of what is going on. It’s hard for us to see this, living in a place where this doesn’t exist to the same extent.
WORKS CITED:
1“Langa.” Wikipedia, 14 June 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langa. Accessed 20 Dec. 2021.
2“Gini Index (World Bank Estimate) | Data.” Data.worldbank.org,
data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.POV.GINI?end=2019&most_recent_value_desc=false&start=20 19&view=map&year=2014. Accessed 19 Dec. 2021.
3 Statistics South Africa. “Five Facts about Poverty in South Africa | Statistics South Africa.” Statssa.gov.za, 4 Apr. 2019, www.statssa.gov.za/?p=12075.
4 United States Census Bureau. “Income and Poverty in the United States: 2020.” The United States Census Bureau, 14 Sept. 2021,
www.census.gov/library/publications/2021/demo/p60-273.html.
5“Poverty Rates in France - Break Poverty Foundation.” Break Poverty Foundation, 5 July 2019, breakpoverty.com/en/poverty-rates-in-france/.
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