The last SA The Good News newsletter reminded us that the black middle class in the country grew from 1.7 million in 2004 to 4.2 million a few months ago. These findings by the University of Cape Town’s Unilever Institute of Strategic Marketing are good news for the country’s demographics (strange we are not hearing more about this!) It suggests that although change flies beneath the radar, it is happening nonetheless.
And yet we still have the poor and, in South Africa, some of the widest inequalities in the world (we are joined by some other African countries in this). The wealthiest 10% consume 51% of goods, while the poorest 10% account for a mere 1.1%. Just a few kilometres from the affluent live people in abject poverty.
What can we do about this?
A question like that usually sends us into our heads and we spout out answers: this solution or that, or we fix blame somewhere. The poor are part of us. It seems to me that until we register this in our hearts, no political or economic fix in the world will change anything.
