Gap between rich & poor too wide

In recent months, citizens still using the bucket system have been protesting against this degrading daily routine, using the most creative ways. These include pouring human waste at an international airport and women baring their buttocks in public protest. It’s been a messy protest, literally.

Now forget the bucket system for a moment, and mentally transport yourself to the opposite end of the bucket system community. Taking a drive in some of South Africa’s wealthiest suburbs, the glaring inequality of South Africa unveils itself in some of the most enthralling ways. Just to scratch the surface, the size of the properties in these leafy suburbs could be described as obscene compared to the levels of poverty being experienced by the other end of the society.

Some of SA’s plushest suburbs include, Sandhurst in Sandton, Johannesburg which is home to about 36 millionaires, according to a 2012 study. Wealth Insight reported that South Africa has the highest number of millionaires in Africa. According to the same research, South Africa’s millionaires are expected to grow from 45,000 in 2011 to 63,000 in 2016, making a 41% growth in millionaires!

On the other hand, just last year, the World Bank reported South Africa has; “one of the world’s highest unemployment rates, high poverty levels, endemic inequality and a dual economy characterized by an informal low-end economy existing alongside a developed, high-end economy.”

South Africa has been named as one of the most unequal societies in the world, where the gap between the rich and poor is too wide. The levels of poverty of the have-nots compared to the opulence exhibited by the rich should shame the country and its leaders.

According to the Global Education magazine, the top 10% in South Africa earn 110 times more than the bottom 10%.

The former SA president Thabo Mbeki and Human Settlement ministers in the past have reported that the government had taken a stand to end the bucket system but to this date, the system is still in use.

Education levels among the majority of the black population are low and lack of skills compared to the rest of the population has contributed greatly to the ever-widening rich poor divide.

Second to Nigeria, our southern neighbour has the second largest economy in Africa. However, government still needs to harness its efforts to ensure that the economic gains that the country makes are not only for the rich, leaving the poor even poorer.