South Africa’s never-ending crisis

The Institute for Economic Justice asserts that the July 2021 protests in South Africa were triggered by the arrest of Jacob Zuma but are fundamentally rooted in a 'never-ending crisis' of inequality, poverty, and governance. The document highlights that South Africa has a Gini coefficient of 0.7 and that the wealthiest 1% own half of all wealth. It criticizes the government's 500bn Rand rescue package as misleading, noting that less than half of the budget materialized by July 2021. Furthermore, it condemns the National Treasury's commitment to austerity measures, which it claims undermine essential social services and socio-economic rights during a period of record unemployment (32.6%) and pandemic-driven hardship.

• South Africa suffers from extreme wealth and income inequality, with a Gini coefficient of 0.7 and the top 1% of the population owning 50% of all wealth.
• Long-term economic decline and structural failures led to a third recession since 1994 in 2019, driven by factors such as 'state capture', deindustrialisation, and insufficient electricity supply.
• The government's 500bn Rand pandemic rescue package was largely illusory; by July 2021, less than half of the budget had materialized, and the 2020 supplementary budget increased non-interest spending by only 36bn Rand (less than 1% of GDP).
• Severe food insecurity and unemployment have peaked during the third wave of Covid-19, with 39% of households running out of money for food in January 2021 and unemployment reaching 32.6%.
• The National Treasury continues to pursue an austerity programme endorsed by the IMF, planning to consolidate non-interest expenditure by an annual real average rate of 5.2% as of February 2021, which the author argues undermines social services.

APA

Sibeko, B. (2021). South Africa’s never-ending crisis. Institute for Economic Justice. https://iej.org.za/press-room/in-the-media/south-africas-never-ending-crisis/

Chicago

Sibeko, Busi. South Africa’s never-ending crisis. Institute for Economic Justice, 2021. https://iej.org.za/press-room/in-the-media/south-africas-never-ending-crisis/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Sibeko |first1=Busi |title=South Africa’s never-ending crisis |publisher=Institute for Economic Justice |date=29 July 2021 |url=https://iej.org.za/press-room/in-the-media/south-africas-never-ending-crisis/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{sibeko2021south, author = {Sibeko, Busi}, title = {{South Africa’s never-ending crisis}}, publisher = {Institute for Economic Justice}, year = {2021}, month = jul, url = {https://iej.org.za/press-room/in-the-media/south-africas-never-ending-crisis/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }