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South Africa as a country and the Southern region of Africa top the World Bank’s ranking of inequality among countries. Racial discrimination and pattern of landholding contribute to inequakity
A recent finding of the World Bank says that South Africa is the most unequal country in the world on many counts including asset sharing. The race, according to the multilateral body, has been playing an important role in perpetrating unevenness in equality. The inequality is also reflected in the uneven ownership of assets; 10% of the population owns more than 80% of the wealth.
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The World Bank has ranked 164 countries by using vectors to measure the extent of inequality. Importantly, previous reports also placed the country at the top of the list.
Race remains as a key factor for inequality, which has an impact on education and segregation of labour market. According to the study, race (ethnicity) contributes 41% of the inequality followed by uneven education (30%). The other factors that contribute to inequality are its legacy of colonialism, apartheid and segregation of population in terms of races.
The other countries which have made top positions in inequality are Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho and Namibia. This makes the southern African region as the most uneven society in the world, according to the World Bank study. Gender inequality is another factor that contributes to the uneven society. Men command more wages than the women in the South African society. Inequal distribution of land, particularly agricultural land in rural areas is another feature, that makes the development plans bit difficult. In countries like Namibia, 70% of the 39.7 million hectares of commercial farmland is still owned by Namibians of European origin. The report uses a statistical tool, Gini Coefficient-for measuring inequality.
