Poverty and Inequality after Apartheid - Yale University.pdfVIP

Poverty and Inequality after Apartheid Jeremy Seekings1 Paper prepared for the second ‘After Apartheid Conference’, Yale, 27-28 April 20072 Abstract Democratic South Af rica was born amidst high hope s f or the reduction of income pov erty and inequality f rom their high levels under apartheid. The reality has been disappointing: despi te steady economic growth, income pov erty pr obably rose in the late 1990s bef ore a muted decline in the early 2000s, income inequality has pr obably grown, and lif e expe ctancy has declined. The pr oximate causes are clear: pe rsistent unempl oyment and low demand f or unskilled labour, strong demand f or skilled labour, an unequal education sy stem, and a social safety net that is unusually widesp read but nonetheless has large holes. It is also clear that economic growth alone will not reduce pov erty or inequality . Pro-poor social pol icies are impor tant, but not as impor tant as a pr o-poor economic growth pat h. Unfortunately, there is little sign of the pol itical conditions changing to pus h the state towards the pr omotion of a more pr o-poor pat tern of economic growth. There is some chance of par ametric ref orms of the welf are state. Overall, however, it is likely that, after another ten y ears of democracy, unempl oyment and pov erty rates will remain high, despi te signif icant redistribution through cash transf ers, and incomes will continue to be distributed extremely unequally . Introduction: Hopes and claims Apartheid’s legacy to the democratic South Africa included highly visible income poverty and inequality. Income povert