1 Rural poverty in South Africa Name of student Course name Date 2 Introduction South Africa is one of the most developed countries in Africa with a GDP of over 300 US dollars according to the 2017 fiscal year; despite this enormous development, poverty among its citizens is still a major challenge. Below is a discussion of the major cause of this profound poverty amongst the commoner in the country, particularly those in the rural areas. Economic Reasons South Africa average growth per year has been less than 2% for the past four years which has ailed the country even more in terms of poverty eradication. There is a linear relationship between economic development and poverty eradication, thus a stagnation or a slow growth rate of a country’s economy leads to more poverty as has been the case in south Africa for the last over five years. The slow growth rate has been attributed to issues such as policies that limit foreign investors from entering the south Africa’s market. This lack of growth results into stagnation whereby the unemployment rate becomes alarming over time, lack of source of livelihood leads to the vicious poverty cycle. With lack of opportunities and source of earning, the people are pushed to live in poverty. Social reasons Spatial challenge is one of the main reasons for high poverty level in south Africa since marginalization has led to division of people, people living in eastern cape, formally Bantustan consisting Ciskei & Transkei live away from job opportunities. This marginalization results into poverty inclination among those away from the town centers. South Africa is one of the countries in the world where division of people is the order of the day, it is this division by race and class lines that has predominantly affected the blacks making them poor. (Mitlin, 2006) In addition to marginalization, poor quality of education has also greatly contributed to poverty, 50% of those living below poverty line had not completed secondary education,20% had incomplete primary school, 14% had no schooling whereas only 0.7 had postgraduate degree (Lekeza et al.,2008). Another major challenge leading to poverty is poor infrastructure especially affecting those living in more remote areas further from the town centers, people living in 3 Gauteng have access to proper infrastructure as opposed to those in Eastern cape in areas like Limompo and Kwazulu where poverty is highest. Corruption is a key driver for poverty in south Africa as this vice is observed in public procurement, extortion, active and passive bribes, laundering of money and fraud as witnessed in judicial system, mining, land administration, police, public services in which cronyism and nepotism are evident. High crime rate especially in the suburbs due to congestion such as those in Soweto has decelerated growth of the economy as investors are not willing to risk investing in the affected areas, this creates room for poverty to continue reigning in the affected areas. Demographic reasons About over 9% of south Africans have immigrated to other countries in the last 10 years with majority moving to Australia, united kingdom and united states, this movement of skilled workers in search for better opportunities elsewhere deprives the country off skilled workers, this has led to slow development which in the long run has resulted into poverty among citizens in the country. Cultural reasons The fact that south Africa hosts people from different cultural background makes integration difficult towards realizing development. Some of the indigenous African occupants in the country still clinch on the old traditions such as having gender inequality whereby women are left behind in opportunities, the inequity leads to poverty due to opportunity deprivation. Ecological facts such as some places especially the southern most parts of cape point receive better rainfall as opposed to the northern semi-arid areas like KwaZulu Natal which is in semiarid region, this leads to nature in discrepancies and leads other parts to be more productive than others directly affecting poverty levels of the areas concerned. 4 Political reasons Despite the abolishment of the apartheid which resulted into segregation of people by races, its effects are still felt to date as racial discriminated make it hard for the marginalized to get better opportunities. It’s this political economy that leads to this deprivation of opportunities to majority of segregated races leading some people to poverty Legal causes of poverty Legal policies have also affected south Africa greatly, despite the good legislation structure enacted by the government; some officials in the same government are corrupt and it’s this impunity has led to low execution of policies set. For instance, investors have found it hard to invest particularly in the rural areas due to the tough measures put by the government. This has deprived the country both economic and technological development leading to poverty among the citizens due to lack of opportunities. (Leibbrandt, 2009) Technological reasons for poverty Technological and innovation advancement contributes to boosting the economy of a country, in south Africa, lack of advanced technological development in the rural areas of Eastern cape province has denied over 15 million people in the province better lives leaving them wallow in poverty. The most affected areas are; Mdeni, Hlankomo,Joe Gqabi and Amatole where most people still use candles since electricity is unavailable to the residents. (World Health Organization, 2014) 5 References Armstrong, P., Lekezwa, B., & Siebrits, K. (2008). Poverty in South Africa: A profile based on recent household surveys. Matieland: Stellenbosch Economic Working Paper, 4(08). Leibbrandt, M., Woolard, C., & Woolard, I. (2009). Poverty and inequality dynamics in South Africa: Post-apartheid developments in the light of the long-run legacy. South African economic policy under democracy, 270-299 Mitlin, D., & Bebbington, A. (2006). Social movements and chronic poverty across the urbanrural divide: concepts and experiences. World Health Organization, & Unicef. (2014). Progress on sanitation and drinking water: 2014 update. World Health Organization.
