South Africa’s never-ending crisis

A statement by the Institute for Economic Justice analyzing the socio-economic drivers behind the July 2021 violent protests in South Africa, arguing that while the arrest of Jacob Zuma was a trigger, the unrest is rooted in systemic inequality, poverty, and failed economic policies.

• The violent protests and looting triggered by the arrest of former President Jacob Zuma on 7 July 2021 resulted in at least 200 deaths, over 2,554 arrests, and damage to 50,000 businesses.
• South Africa suffers from extreme wealth and income inequality, characterized by a Gini coefficient of 0.7, where the top 1 per cent of the population owns half of all wealth and the top 10 per cent own between 90–95 per cent.
• Long-term economic instability is evidenced by a downward growth trend since 2010, averaging 1.7 per cent between 2011 and 2018, and a third recession since 1994 beginning in 2019. Contributing factors include 'state capture' (systemic corruption), deindustrialisation, declining commodity prices, and insufficient electricity supply.
• Poverty and food insecurity are severe; in 2015, 30.4 million people lived below the official poverty line, with 13.8 million in 'extreme poverty'. By January 2021, 39 per cent of households ran out of money for food and 17 per cent experienced weekly hunger.
• The government's 500bn Rand pandemic rescue package announced in April 2020 is criticized as misleading, as the 2020 supplementary budget only increased non-interest spending by 36bn Rand (less than 1 per cent of GDP). The Institute for Economic Justice argues that the National Treasury's continued commitment to an IMF-endorsed austerity programme, including a planned annual real average consolidation of non-interest expenditure by 5.2 per cent, undermines essential 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} }