Johannesburg – South Africa is the most unequal country in the world, with race playing a determining factor in a society where 10% of the population owns more than 80% of the wealth, a World Bank report said on Wednesday.
“South Africa… is the most unequal country in the world, ranking first among 164 countries,” the Washington-based institution said in a report called ‘Inequality in Southern Africa’.
Nearly thirty years after the end of apartheid, “race remains a key driver of high inequality in South Africa, due to its impact on education and the labor market,” it said.
When race is considered as a factor in income disparities, the report added, “its contribution to income inequality amounts to 41%, while contribution of education is reduced to 30%.”
“The legacy of colonialism and apartheid, rooted in racial and spatial segregation, continues to reinforce inequality.”
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The country’s neighbours that make up the rest of the Southern African Customs Union – Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho and Namibia – all finish high on the list of the most unequal countries in the world.
Gender also plays an important role.
In the region, women earn on average 30% less than men with the same level of education.
The pay gap between men and women reaches 38% in Namibia and South Africa.
The uneven distribution of agricultural land is also a factor driving inequality, especially in rural areas.
In Namibia, 70% of the 39.7 million hectares of commercial agricultural land “still belong to Namibians of European descent”, the World Bank said.
The report was produced before the Covid-19 pandemic and its authors used the Gini coefficient – an indicator of income inequality – to rank countries.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Getty Images
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