Shifts in non-income welfare in South Africa: 1993-2004

Post-apartheid welfare and inequality dynamics

By: Bhorat H, Naidoo P, van der Westhuizen C
Published by: Development Policy Research Unit (DPRU), University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa , 2006
Via: Eldis

The advent of 10 years of democratic rule in South Africa, together with the publication of recent survey sets, has sparked an interest amongst economists and development researchers. The emphasis of recent studies has been on changes in income poverty and inequality over a period of time within the 10 years of democracy. A larger time frame and analysis of non-income welfare changes between 1993 and 2004 is therefore the focus of this paper. The authors use factor analysis to construct an asset index as an alternative, non-income based measure of welfare. Some interesting findings include:

• government asset and service delivery between 1993 and 2004 was pro-poor in nature
• a significant backlog still, however, exists - large proportions of poor households still lack access to basic services, particularly flush/chemical toilets and piped water
• African, rural, female-headed households remain particularly vulnerable - indicating a need for appropriate policies designed to deal with the core of the marginalised in terms of entitlement deprivation
• intra-African inequality is notably high, which may be a reflection of Africans at the upper end of distribution benefitting more from economic growth.

The overall conclusion, therefore, is that non-income welfare significantly decreased between 1993 and 2004, but accurate analysis of the post-apartheid welfare situation requires a more holistic methodology incorporating both income and non-income variables.