Trends in living conditions and satisfaction among poorer older South Africans: objective and subjective indicators of quality of life in the October Household Survey

The majority of South Africa's older population is income poor and lives in multigeneration households. Since the first democratically elected government came into power in 1994, South Africans have been promised ‘a better life for all’. A range of policies and programmes has been implemented to improve the living standards and quality of life of the poor. The article asks how the older poor have benefited from government interventions in the period 1995–8. Drawing on data compiled from Statistics South Africa's household surveys in 1995 and 1998 (n=20 000–30 000 households), a set of over 35 objective and subjective indicators broken down by income and younger and older households is reviewed. Older households include at least one member over 60 years of age. Results show that access to services and opportunities improves systematically from poor to rich households. Major material gains for the poor and older households during the review period include access to clean water, electricity and home ownership. Older poor households with better access to services and opportunities are more likely to express overall satisfaction with their living circumstances. The study concludes that the most effective mechanism for poverty alleviation appears to be the non-contributory, means-tested state old-age pension, which lifts some households out of the most disadvantaged bottom income group. Policies under discussion promise further opportunities for empowering poor households with older members.     

Monitoring quality of life in cities: The Durban case

South Africans were promised a better life for all in the run-up to the first democratic elections in 1994. Local governments throughout South Africa are seeking to improve service delivery to underdeveloped areas in line with the new policy. The seven councils of the Durban Metropolitan Area have a vision for the city, to be realised by the year 2015, that residents will live in acceptably serviced housing and will enjoy a generally high quality of life that can be sustained. To monitor performance towards achieving this vision, the Urban Strategy Department of the Durban Metropolitan Council initiated a project to guide budget allocations and measure the impact of local government actions on residents' perceptions of quality of life. This article reports on results from the pilot study for the project, which included a sample survey of 300 residents and in-depth interviews with a cross-section of 60 residents. The baseline study revealed vast differences in living conditions, access to services and life satisfaction across neighbourhoods. Satisfaction with housing and the neighbourhood, as indicated by disinclination to move, were major factors contributing to life satisfaction of Durban residents.     

South Africa in the Australian mirror: per capita real GDP in the Cape Colony,Natal, Victoria,and New South Wales, 1861–1909

This article compares the real GDP per capita of the Cape Colony and Natal between 1861 and 1909 with that of Australia's two most developed colonies, Victoria and New South Wales. Estimates of European and non‐European GDP per capita for both South African colonies are also provided. Together, this information allows for the first time an evaluation of the growth performance of these important parts of the South African economy in the colonial era. The article concludes that South African performance in this period was stronger than often assumed and that by the beginning of the twentieth century European South Africans, now more fully integrated into a British World economy, operated at a level of GDP per capita that matched and in some places may have exceeded that of Australians. Non‐European South Africans, however, did not share in these same advances.     

Public‐private partnerships for waste management: Challenges for policies and procedures

Recently, all essential services in South Africa have been the focus of major efforts to ensure equitable access. This focus is quickly intensifying at all levels of government, as greater attention is directed at global environmental issues and at removing the imbalances in the socio‐economic conditions of the past. Unfortunately for solid waste management, unlike other essential services, this is happening at a time of declining financial resources, fewer national programmes and increasing regulation. Many municipalities in South Africa are turning to public‐private partnerships (PPPs) as a way of addressing the growing municipal solid waste management problem, especially with regard to extending services to previously disadvantaged, low‐income communities. This article seeks to define relevant issues, clarify the use of PPPs and generally suggest a way forward for local municipalities committed to meeting the challenges of maintaining and expanding solid waste management services.     

Mobile entrepreneurship: Informal sector cross-border trade and street trade in South Africa

This article presents the results of a study on the participation of non-South Africans in the handicraft/curio sector of street trade in South Africa in informal sector cross-border trade. The findings provide an introduction to the largely unexplored phenomenon of informal sector cross-border trade between South Africa and neighbouring states and challenge some of the common myths about non-South African street traders which pervade public discourses around migration. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is presently involved in prolonged and contentious negotiations to establish a free trade area for the region based on the SADC protocol on trade and development. At the same time, against a backdrop of anti-immigrant rhetoric, the South African government is developing a new migration policy. The article argues that informal cross-border entrepreneurs should not be disadvantaged by the renegotiation of regional trade agreements and the reformulation of South Africa's new migration policy.     

The South African dream and the three stumbling blocks

Most South Africans nurture a strong hope for a better future. The South African economy, however, has considerable problems with respect to both growth and employment, which in turn reduce the scope for redistribution of the national income. This article deals with a number of stumbling blocks that the political and economic decision makers may be tripped by and which may make the South African dream nothing but a dream. These are: obstacles to growth, increasing economic and social differences, and unfavourable political development.     

Regulation and facilitation of public‐private partnerships: The MSP policy framework

This article describes the Municipal Services Partnership (MSP) Policy developed by the Department of Constitutional Development (DCD) of the Ministry for Provincial Affairs and Constitutional Development of South Africa to help local authorities respond to the great demand for improvement of municipal services. The MSP policy was developed by the DCD, utilising consultative policy making. It defines municipal services partnerships and typical contractual forms of MSPs, and also identifies gaps and constraints in existing South African law that can make implementation of MSPs unnecessarily difficult or more costly for local authorities and service consumers. The policy creates a framework for competitive procurement of MSP contracts and, finally, it describes the capacity needs of local authorities to deal effectively with MSP planning, procurement and implementation, and identifies new and expanded institutional roles at the local and national levels to support local authorities that wish to engage in MSPs     

The municipal infrastructure investment unit: The government's PPP‐enabling strategy

The South African government is committed to helping local governments make full use of service delivery ‘partnerships’ in improving the quality of essential urban services for its citizens, as so many other governments are now doing worldwide. A key part in this effort is being played by the Municipal Infrastructure Investment Unit (MIIU), a not‐for‐profit company established in 1998 for the purpose of using grant funding and technical help to guide the process of preparing and negotiating concession contracts and other forms of municipal service partnerships at the local level across South Africa. This article covers the MIIU's operations and rationale in an effort to describe one important way in which the government is responding to the challenges associated with extending basic municipal service provision to all of its citizens.     

The employment environment for youth in rural South Africa: A mixed-methods study

South Africa has high youth unemployment. This article examines the predictors of youth employment in rural Agincourt, Mpumalanga Province. A survey of 187 out-of-school 18 to 24 year olds found that only 12% of women and 38% of men were currently employed. Men with skills/training were significantly more likely to report employment, mostly physical labour (adjusted odds ratio: 4.5; confidence interval: 1.3, 15.3). In-depth interviews with 14 of the youth revealed that women are perceived more suitable for formal employment, which is scarce, informing why women were more likely to pursue further education and yet less likely to be employed. Ten key informants from local organisations highlighted numerous local youth employment resources while, in contrast, all youth in the sample said no resources were available, highlighting a need for the organisations to extend their services into rural areas. Because these services are focused on entrepreneurship, programmes to increase financial literacy and formal employment opportunities are also needed.     

Perceptions of economic and financial conditions of households in 2000

'The economy grew by 3,0 per cent in 2000. This was the fastest growth since 1996, buoyed by a strong recovery in household consumption spending and an increase in exports of over 7 per cent in real terms' (Trevor Manuel, Minister of Finance, Budget speech, 21 February 2001). 'Growth won't solve our problems. The faster the economy grows, the faster will be the creation of jobs for the highly skilled. So there will be more, not fewer, problems with income disparity' (Iraj Abedian, Standard Bank Group Economist, cited in Financial Mail , 2001a). The aim of this article is to examine the extent to which economic growth, experienced in 2000, improved the financial and economic conditions of South African households, by analysing a national representative survey of 2 700 adult South Africans conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council in September 2000. The survey results were analysed by disaggregating data by race, gender, area type, province and Living Standard Measure (LSM). The theme emerging from this article is that although the majority of households were negatively affected financially and economically, proportionally more Africans, women, rural residents and poor households were hardest hit. Although South Africa achieved a 3 per cent economic growth rate in 2000, there is limited evidence to suggest that this growth trickled down to the majority of households.     

The South African labour market, 1995–2015

This study investigates the changes in the South African labour market in the post-apartheid period. While unemployment increased over the 1995–2015 period, employment also increased. Nonetheless, the extent of employment increase is not rapid enough to absorb all net entrants into the labour force, resulting in increasing unemployment, or an employment absorption rate of 65.3%. Unemployment is concentrated in specific demographically and geographically defined groups, most notably Africans, the lowly educated and those aged below 30 years, residing in rural areas in Gauteng. Finally, four worrying findings are observed: youth jobseekers aged below 30 years struggle to find their first job; chronic unemployment is more serious for the relatively older jobseekers (aged 45 years or above) with past work experience; employees working for small, medium and micro enterprises still stagnate at approximately 3.5 million; and jobseekers from the older age cohorts are less likely to actively seek work by enquiring at workplaces and answering job advertisements.     

Informal moneylenders in the Limpopo,Gauteng and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa

The article provides a critical analysis of the informal (unregistered) money-lending business and how it has served as a survival strategy for black South Africans. Using data obtained from 657 informal (unregistered) micro-moneylenders in three South African provinces, namely the Eastern Cape, Gauteng and Limpopo, an analysis is undertaken to highlight how the business is organised, conducted and marketed, and how income generated from it. Provincial spatial variations and similarities relating to this economic activity are noted. Finally, the article aims at highlighting of the informal microlenders' responses to affiliation to the Micro Lenders Association and registration with the Micro Finance Regulatory Council.     

Deconstructing ‘the foreign’: The limits of citizenship for explaining price competition in the Spaza sector in South Africa

An important component of the informal economy in South Africa, the Spaza sector is portrayed as dominated by foreign nationals who outcompete South African shopkeepers on price. Indeed, this business competition from foreign nationals is a key reason given to explain xenophobia in South Africa. This article sets out to interrogate this widely held assumption. Drawing on evidence from over 1000 Spaza shops from South Africa’s three main cities, the article makes the case that business competitiveness does not correspond with ‘foreign’ or South African identities in a simple way. Firstly, while citizenship or nationality is a factor, it is not captured by the labels of ‘foreign’ versus South African, as there are significant differences by nationality within the ‘foreign’. Secondly, not all foreign nationalities out-compete South Africans on price. Thirdly, place matters too, not only because we find different nationalities in different cities, but also because there are different patterns of price competition by nationality in each place. Lastly, there are product-specific dynamics that impact on price more profoundly than nationality. For example, regardless of nationality, milk is cheaper in Cape Town and bread is cheaper in Johannesburg.     

QUANTIFYING THE OUTSOURCING OF JOBS FROM MANUFACTURING TO SERVICES

There has been debate internationally and in South Africa about the extent to which a relative decline in manufacturing employment and rise in services employment can be accounted for by intersectoral outsourcing of jobs in the domestic economy. This article develops a new methodology for testing for and quantifying outsourcing at an economy-wide level. This methodology is used to analyse intersectoral shifts in employment in South Africa between 1997 and 2005. Trends in employment in the business services subsector of services are also examined for what they suggest about the extent of outsourcing. Overall, the results suggest that intersectoral outsourcing accounts for some but by no means all of the apparent shift in employment between the manufacturing and services sectors in South Africa.     

Restless minds: South African students and the brain drain

This article reports the results of a 2002 survey of emigration potential among a representative sample of 4784 postgraduate and final-year undergraduate students at South Africa's tertiary educational institutions. The authors created a valid and reliable index of emigration potential and found slightly higher levels than those measured by identical questions in previous surveys of skilled adult South Africans. Multivariate regression analysis revealed that the factors that most increase emigration potential among South Africa's future skills base are logistical ones, including family encouragement and financial resources. Next in importance are students' prospects of a better life for themselves and their families in their target countries than in South Africa. Finally, the study showed that patriotism and strong national identity decrease emigration potential while previous travel abroad and access to information about life abroad increase it. It also found that a range of possible government attempts to make emigration more difficult would only increase students' probability of leaving the country.     

Recent fertility patterns and population policy in South Africa

This study presents estimated levels of age-specific fertility (ASF) and P/F ratios in South Africa, by selected characteristics for the African population. Data were obtained from the nationwide 1993 Living Standards Survey and adjusted to reflect ASF. The national total fertility rate (TFR) was 3.7 children/woman, or significantly higher than the 2.9 estimated by the 1994 October Household Survey. Fertility was highest in Northern Province (4.5). Three other provinces had over 4.0 TFR: Free State, Eastern Cape, and North-West. The lowest fertility was in Western Cape (2.3) followed by Gauteng (2.9). Whites had the lowest rates; Africans had the highest rates. Fertility declined for Africans and Indians. Fertility was associated with residence, age, and work status, and did not differ by residence for Africans. Differences between African and White fertility were in the timing of the start, peak, and termination of childbearing. Peak childbearing was 20-24 years for Africans and older ages for Whites and others. Adolescent childbearing among Africans was high in 4 regions and 2 provinces. Fertility declined among women aged over 30 years and rose among younger women. Fertility decline in any age group was not apparent in Venda and Bophuthatswana. Nonmarital fertility rose for all but the oldest childbearing ages. Fertility did not decline among well educated women aged under 40 years. Over 50% of African women in peak childbearing ages had never been married and had at least 1 baby. Fertility decline has slowed due to nonmarital childbearing and increased childbearing in the peak ages.     

Urban–rural inequalities in health care delivery in South Africa

Urban–rural inequalities in access to health care services continue to persist in South Africa, and in almost all cases discriminate against the poor. In certain cases disparities are even worse in urban areas, although levels of service delivery admittedly are consistently worse in rural areas. People in rural areas are generally more dependent on public and other health care services than on private services, compared with people living in urban areas. There is limited evidence of substantial intra-urban disparities, with inequality being worse in smaller urban settlements (i.e. towns) as opposed to larger ones (i.e. small cities and metropolitan areas). The article emphasises the important role the envisaged future decentralisation of selected health services to local government is likely to play in addressing these inequalities and the lack of service delivery at this level.     

South African domestic tourism beyond apartheid

Domestic tourism in South Africa has been greatly affected by the policy of apartheid. The demise of this policy will inevitably lead to the restructuring of domestic tourism. It is hoped that an increasing number of black South Africans will engage in tourism, and for this to happen there must be participatory planning. The administrative structures of the industry will have to be representative of all racial groups. Tourism planning will have to be geared to the satisfaction of the needs of all tourists regardless of colour, race, creed and sex.     

SMME development in Johannesburg's Southern Metropolitan Local Council: An assessment

This article addresses the development, management and needs of small, micro‐ and medium enterprises (SMMEs) in Johannesburg's Southern Metropolitan Local Council (SMLC), with particular focus on business development by previously disadvantaged South Africans. The article comprises an introductory section on the small‐business sector in South Africa and internationally, as well as the results of a field survey of a sample of 841 SMMEs in the SMLC. Many of the respondents were located in areas like Soweto, Orange Farm, Eldorado Park and Lenasia. Given the areas’ poverty and a history of neglect, the bulk of respondents were small, micro‐ or survivalist enterprises. In part, the survey confirmed some generally held notions about small businesses. Among these were funding difficulties, a strong desire for business‐related training and serious informational problems. The study revealed a shortage of management skills and poor record‐keeping. At the same time, some evidence emerged of business potential, including high survival rates and a determination to succeed. Key recommendations include training programmes in such areas as record‐keeping, marketing, customer relations, inventory control and tendering procedures. Mechanisms are also suggested for facilitating access to finance.