April 2011 - Centre for Civil Society - University of KwaZulu-Natal

programme, has joined the forces of the capitalist class. But for the great
bulk of black South Africans life remains a struggle.
We cannot deny that some social concessions have been won by the
masses, but these concessions are being undermined by the day. For
instance the households with no access to water fell from 36% in 1994 to
4% in 2009. Access to sanitation and electricity also improved over the
same period – the former from 50% to 77% and the latter from 51% to 73%.
At the same time, however, price hikes and cuts in these utilities have
caused some of the biggest protests in the country. The fact is that
although many have won access to these basic utilities, many cannot
afford them! Almost 1.3 million households, which account for almost 5
million people, have been experiencing water cut-offs due to nonpayment.
Poverty and unemployment is indeed eating its way into the stomachs of
South African workers and youth. Despite the great wealth that lies
beneath the soil of South Africa, the country is placed in the top ten most
unequal societies in the world according to the Gini coefficient. Almost
half the population survives on only 8 percent of national income. On the
other side, in 2009, on average, each of the top 20 paid directors in JSElisted
companies earned 1728 times the average income of a South African
worker.
Officially 4.2m people are unemployed. This figure, however, does not
include 1.7m people who not counted as unemployed since they have been
pushed permanently out of the labour force. So unofficially, 5.9 million
workers, that is 31.1% of the population, of working age are unemployed.
Among the youth the unemployment rate exceeds 70 percent. About a
quarter of the population lives on less than $1.25 pr. day.
Life under the present system is proving unbearable for millions of people
who risked their lives in the fight against the apartheid regime. In fact if
you lightly scratch the surface of the Republic all the old crap is still
crawling around. For most black South Africans the apartheid regime is still
very much alive. The fact that in the third quarter of 2010, 29.80% of
blacks were officially unemployed, compared with 22.30% of coloureds,
8.60 of Asians and only 5.10% gives a clear indication of the real situation.
All this is going on at the same time as the big corporations and mining
companies are making colossal profits. Gold prices have more than
quadrupled in the past decade, going from US$280 in January 2000 to
US$1370 in January 2011. Still, surface workers on South African mines
earn roughly R1500 (US$200) per month, while underground workers earn
R3 000 (US$400) per month, figures which have not changed much since
2005.
Seventeen years of ANC rule and formal democracy have not changed this
situation significantly. On the contrary, today since the beginning of the
world economic crisis in 2008 the situation is worsening by the day as
unemployment, poverty and inflation are increasing rapidly.
These facts cannot be reduced to bad administration and technical
incompetence of the ANC governments. The root cause of the plight of the
workers and poor is the system of capitalism that has reached a historical
impasse and is unable to develop society or to give any significant
concessions to the masses. On the contrary, it is forced to attack the
workers and the poor more viciously than ever. The main mistake of the
ANC governments is to be found in their belief that the aims of the
National Democratic Revolution – a political programme with the aim of