Patterns of poverty in South Africa

This article brings together results from two large household surveys ‐ the October Household Survey and the Income and Expenditure Survey of 1995. The analysis adopts a simple definition of income poverty which allows comparisons between households in ten deciles defined on the basis of per capita household income. The analysis compares access to resources such as housing and land, and access to basic services across these households. It then examines the economic status of women and men living in households with different incomes. The article shows consistent correlation of per capita income with other examined variables. It illustrates further how women within each decile are disad‐vantagedcomparedwith men in terms of economic status and earning.     

The impact of tourism on poverty in South Africa

This paper evaluates the potential impact of tourism on poverty in South Africa on the basis of recent survey data on international tourism spending patterns. It looks at three scenarios, using an applied general equilibrium model. The main finding is that the poor benefit very little in the short term from additional tourism income. A further finding is that domestic and international tourist expenditure affect the economy differently; both markets are therefore important. In essence, the research confirms that tourism receipts can be used as a tool to alleviate poverty, but in South Africa this must be supported by policies that focus on the labour market and human resource development.     

Measurements and determinants of multifaceted poverty in South Africa

Poverty, despite being a multifaceted concept, is commonly measured in either absolute or relative monetary terms. However, it can also be measured subjectively, as people form perceptions on their relative income, welfare and life satisfaction. This is the first study that uses the National Income Dynamics Study data to analyse poverty across various objective and subjective methods. The paper finds that while respondents' poverty status varies across methods, blacks remain the racial group most likely to be defined as poor by at least one method. The multivariate analysis reveals that the impact of some explanatory variables, such as experience of negative events, frequency of crime victimisation, health status and importance of religious activities, is mixed across methods.     

Increases in poverty in South Africa, 1999–2002

Analysis of the results in the 1999 October Household Survey and the 2002 Labour Force Survey suggests that the number of people in the bottom two expenditure classes (R0–R399 and R400–R799 per household per month) increased by about 4,2 million over the period. As the boundaries of these expenditure classes remained constant in nominal terms, there is a likelihood that the number of people in poverty will have increased as well. This article attempts to discover whether this is indeed the case. The possible increase in the number of people in poverty is not equal to the increase in the number of people in these two expenditure categories. Rather, it is equal to the difference between the numbers of people in poverty in the two years. Our first crude estimate of the maximum potential number of ‘new’ poor suggests that it could be as high as 4,5 million. This estimate, which excludes any adjustments for possible underreporting of expenditure, child cost economies and household economies of scale, and the ‘social wage’, is whittled down as we attempt to make the relevant allowances. Responding to claims that poverty is increasing in the country, the government has pointed to a failure to consider the contribution of the social wage to the alleviation of poverty. Accordingly, we have also attempted to estimate the impact of the social wage.     

Poverty in South Africa: Statistical inference for decomposable poverty measures

The measurement of poverty involves two problems: identifying the poor and constructing an index to measure the intensity of poverty. The headcount ratio is one of the widely used indices for the measurement of poverty. This article considers some of the other decomposable (i.e. additively separable) poverty measures. The importance of this property (decomposability) and of subgroup consistency for a poverty measure is highlighted. Since most of these poverty measures are estimated on the basis of sample surveys, the statistical significance of the observed differences is tested using the distribution-free approach proposed by Kakwani (1993, Review of Economics and Statistics , 75: 632-40). The Income and Expenditure Survey conducted in 1995 by Statistics South Africa, then called Central Statistical Service, is used in the study.     

Globalisation,poverty and corruption: Retarding progress in South Africa

ABSTRACT

Poverty and corruption can both immiserate a nation. Globalisation through open trade can potentially increase economic growth, providing employment and increased incomes to the poor. Corruption can dampen or even reduce these positive developments. Although globalisation is considered instrumental in development strategies, theoretically, the impact of globalisation on poverty reduction is ambiguous, an ambiguity that is also reflected in the empirical literature. The corruption-poverty literature clearly reveals that empirical findings on such association are at best heterogeneous. This article examines the effects of globalisation and corruption on poverty using time series data for South Africa for the period 1991–2016. Three indicators of poverty and recently developed measures of globalisation and corruption were employed in the logistic regression model used for estimation. The results confirm that globalisation reduces poverty while corruption intensifies it. The globalisation findings are robust across the different measures of poverty while unidirectional results show corruption increases poverty.     

Feminisation of poverty among the street homeless women in South Africa

This article gives an overview of poverty, deprivation and homelessness as a social ill that is eating deep into the society's fabric. It affirms that these concepts are inextricably linked, illustrating this with the case of the street homeless women. Furthermore, it describes the characteristics of street homeless women in Johannesburg inner city and their perception of poverty. It also describes the survival strategies adopted by these women on the streets. The article also illustrates that street homeless women suffer most from unprecedented population growth, high levels of poverty, homelessness, illiteracy and unemployment. They form part of the largest group of the poorly sheltered population. The street homeless women in particular constitute a population at risk, especially when the nature of their homelessness is concealed. The article suggests it might be appropriate to give special attention to the poorest segment of the population, which includes the street homeless women. They must be made to participate fully and equally in policies and strategies to alleviate poverty.     

The level of poverty in South Africa: Consideration of an experiential measure

Poverty is usually measured on a basis that is either subjective (respondent's perceptions) or objective (relating to some externally set standard). This article draws on an ‘experiential’ measure of poverty in which respondents with children report on whether or not they have had sufficient money to feed their children. Data from South Africa's 1994 October Household Survey showed that this and other measures revealed similar levels of poverty. However, the picture drawn of the social distribution of poverty suggests a higher incidence amongst those in squatter settlements and a lower incidence in rural areas.     

Development policy and water services in South Africa: an urban poverty perspective

This paper explores the impact of overall macroeconomic development policy on water service delivery policy and urban poverty in South Africa. It scrutinises ambiguous definitions of ‘urban’ in the literature, which tend to obscure the extent of urban poverty in this country. This is crucial given that a large proportion of the urban poor live in informal settlements, which are sometimes lumped with rural areas. Informal settlements are generally characterised by limited essential services such as housing, water supply, storm-water facilities and sanitation services. Water services, like other social services, retain the racial imprint of apartheid. Consequently, water policy in South Africa attempts to address water issues from an equity perspective. By analysing the effects of the tariff subpolicy within the water policy, the paper recommends that free basic water should be made available only to poor households.     

Does poverty constrain migration in South Africa? Evidence,explanations and implications

There are indications that poor people may face obstacles to their rural–urban migration. This article pursues the question of whether this is the case in the South African context. It argues for the importance of longitudinal data, which are not available at present, to answer this question conclusively. Levels of education can be used as a proxy for income levels, and the article examines recently published multivariate data in this regard. However, using education as a proxy for income is problematic, because education has an independent effect on migration rates through its selection of those with the skill levels demanded by the labour market. The article develops an argument about the constraining effects of the costs of migration and the role of social networks in migration and ends by demonstrating how the costs of migration can solve a number of puzzles presented by empirical research on migration.     

Estimating a poverty line: An application to free basic municipal services in South Africa

One of the key interventions aimed at improving the welfare of South African households has been local government's provision of a package of free basic municipal services to poor households. It is, however, not completely clear how different municipalities identify households that are eligible for these services. Evidence suggests that many municipalities currently provide services to all households with a monthly income of less than R1500 a month. This ‘free basic services poverty line’ is, however, low in comparison with a number of unofficial poverty lines used by policymakers and researchers in South Africa. This paper considers the impact of increasing the value of the free basic services line, in terms of the additional share and number of households eligible for support and the additional financial cost. We find that urban municipalities would face the steepest increases in their free basic services budgets with any potential increase in the free basic services poverty line.     

The growth,poverty and inequality nexus in South Africa: Cointegration and causality analysis

This study empirically established the long-run relationship and causality effects that exist between growth, poverty and inequality. The analysis was carried out on a panel of nine South African provinces from 1995 to 2012. To capture poverty and inequality in a broader context, two measures of poverty (income and non-income) and three measures of inequality (income, education and land) were adopted for the study. The results confirm that there is a long-run relationship between growth, poverty and inequality. Notable results from the causality tests suggest that growth does not promote equal distribution of income in society but as income distribution begins to equalise, economic growth rises. This is regarded as growth–inequality disconnect. The unidirectional causality, which runs from income poverty to income inequality, suggests that a rising level of income poverty will lead to falling income inequality in the society; likewise, income inequality increases as non-income poverty declines.     

The determinants of rural and urban household poverty in the North West province of South Africa

Based on standard poverty measures, the extent of poverty in the North West province is on average worse than in South Africa. For instance, the poverty gap ratio for North West is twice that of the South African average, and the FGT index is three times as high. This article therefore aims to identify the determinants of rural and urban poverty in the North West province of South Africa. Using data gathered from a survey of 593 black households across the province, probit model estimates suggest that the major significant determinants of household poverty in both rural and urban areas are education and household size. A difference between rural and urban poverty is, first, that extra female adults in a rural household raise the probability of poverty. Secondly, having a migrant (out) worker as head of the household in rural areas lowers the probability of poverty, while this does not apply to urban households. A sensitivity analysis for the robustness of the results over a range of poverty lines reveals that the impact of education is much stronger for poorer households than for more wealthy households.     

Tackling child poverty in South Africa: Implications of ubuntu for the system of social grants

In South Africa both liberal and more communitarian and relational discourses of citizenship can be seen – the latter in the form of the southern African idea of ubuntu. Policy for assisting children, however, is dominated by the framework of liberal citizenship, most clearly through the Bill of Rights and in particular the Child Support Grant. Using analyses from a purpose-built microsimulation model we show how a neglect of children's broader relationships in the current liberal citizenship inspired policy context limits the effectiveness of the child poverty strategy. The empirical analyses demonstrate how a greater recognition by policymakers of the relational principles of ubuntu could be expected to have more effect on reducing child poverty.     

Informal settlement upgrading,assets and poverty alleviation: Evidence from longitudinal research in South Africa

This paper investigates the relationship between housing as an asset and the accumulation of other assets. Using data from a longitudinal research project stretching over nearly 25 years, we have found that besides actual income, there have also been improvements in self-perceived wealth ranking, asset holding, housing size, infrastructure access and human capital. Not all households have however benefited or been found to be better off. We have found that those households who had settled in Freedom Square after 1994 were indeed better off than the earlier settlers. Asset building is a slow process, one driven by stability (accessing urban land and secure tenure), finding an address, accessing education and finding work or remaining employed (though not necessarily in this particular sequence). Contrary to what the Department of Human Settlements suggests, we have found little evidence that informal settlement dwellers build assets by means of the secondary housing market.     

A descriptive study of the dynamics of relative poverty in the Western Cape province of South Africa

This article provides statistical estimates of the level of relative poverty over time in the Western Cape province of South Africa, using data sets from Statistics South Africa. It seems that relatively large numbers of Black and Coloured households are chronically poor, and that substandard education and living conditions are likely to be causing this situation. The authors propose short-term and long-term poverty alleviation plans that aim to increase accessibility to social services and to raise educational levels, to ensure sustainable livelihoods for the people concerned.