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Poverty and Inequality
“On the best side, South Africa has continued to surprise even the biggest sceptics
with its ability to maintain relative stability and economic calm through stormy financial
periods and a larger-than-life World Cup. Yet poverty and inequality, in coldly economic
terms, continue to threaten every aspect of the social and economic well-being of the
vast majority of South Africans. The reality is as stark as the Gini coefficient. Although
so much is already being done, the rift between the top 20% and the bottom 80% of
the population isn’t getting any smaller.” - Francis Wilson
T
he causes of both poverty and inequality liedeep
within South African history, and can be traced
through the long process of conquest as it fused
with the country’s race-biased industrial revolution in
the century after the mineral discoveries of the late
nineteenth century. This history cannot, of course,
be rewritten but it is important to understand
and acknowledge it if the country is to find ways of
overcoming this dimension of its heritage.
UCT is home to a long and eminent tradition of
basic and applied inter-disciplinary research into
the challenges posed by poverty and inequality in
South Africa. For more than thirty years, this research
has been linked to the goals of political, social and
economic transformation. The Southern Africa Labour
and Development Research Unit (SALDRU), established
by Professor Francis Wilson in 1975, organised the
landmark 1984 Carnegie Conference on Poverty and
Development in Southern Africa and – in association with
the African National Congress and its allies – the 1993
household living standards survey. The Development
Policy Research Unit was founded in 1990 with the goals
of providing evidence-based advice to then extra-state
actors on public policy with respect to development
and labour. The Centre for Social Science Research
(CSSR) was established in 2001/02 to build on the
growing strengths of economics in deepening capacity
in systematic basic and applied research in the other
social sciences. Research in the units that make up the
CSSR has spanned diverse disciplines, including not
only the social sciences but also collaborations with
scholars in the humanities and law, and in the natural
and medical sciences. In much the same way that the
CSSR fosters cross-faculty collaborations, so too does
SALDRU nurture its partnerships.
DataFirst was originally established, under Professor
Francis Wilson’s leadership, as part of the CSSR,
before later becoming a freestanding centre that has
pioneered in Africa easy access to user-friendly and
high-quality survey data. The Children’s Institute was
also established in 2001, with the goal of contributing
to policies, laws and interventions that promote
equality and realise the rights and improve the
conditions of all children in South Africa, through
research, advocacy, education and technical support.
Another of the key research groups working in this
area is the Health Economics Research Unit (HEU),
which was established in 1990 in the School of Public
Health and Family Medicine. The HEU works to improve
the performance of health systems through informing
health policy and enhancing technical and managerial
capacity in sub-Saharan Africa.
The following pages reflect key achievements of
the last year within some of these research groups,
in moving towards reducing the twin burdens of
poverty and inequality in South Africa and the
greater African continent.