In general, an ageing population puts added pressure on the working-age population to be more productive – just to maintain total output – amid growing fiscal constraints.
Apartheid ended in 1994 in South Africa, but ‘race’ remains politically salient.
Photo by DEA / A. Vergani/De Agostini via Getty Images
Critics of the 1994 political settlement largely hail from the black middle class, even though it has been one the principal beneficiaries of South Africa’s social democracy.
Extreme poverty has seen shack settlements mushroom in South Africa.
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Social grants are the largest source of support for many vulnerable groups. They are the government’s primary response to poverty, food insecurity and inequality.
South Africa’s democratic era presidents, Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, Kgalema Motlanthe, Jacob Zuma and Cyril Ramaphosa.
Penguin Random House South Africa
Mandela, the first president of a democratic South Africa, made big strategic choices – not necessarily the right ones, but certainly ones that were befitting of the times.
Street vendors ply their trade in Johannesburg.
EPA-EFE/Kim Lubrook
The democratic transition in 1994 was the result of an ‘elite pact’ that changed the country’s politics, but did little to undermine the foundations of white economic power.
Children play on a trampoline in Alexandra, Johannesburg.
EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook
South Africa can’t possibly remain the same country in the aftermath of this mayhem. There are just too many storms ahead to simply continue unchanged.
Many poor families in South Africa’s informal settlements survive on welfare grants.
EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook
A national minimum wage could benefit young people who have jobs and stimulate those who have given up trying to find work. But those without work need additional help.