SOUTH AFRICA

This 2018 fact sheet by the Institute for Economic Justice examines South Africa's fulfillment of economic and social rights ahead of its first UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights review. It argues that the government's adoption of fiscal austerity, combined with extreme systemic inequality and corruption, undermines the rights to health and education.

• South Africa is characterized by extreme income and wealth inequality, with the wealthiest 1% owning half of all assets and the top decile holding 90–95% of the country's wealth. In 2014, the richest 10% of households captured two thirds of personal income, and the top 1% of earners held a 20% income share, which is an 11 percentage point increase since the end of apartheid.
• Poverty rates have risen, with 55.5% of the population living below the official national upper bound poverty line (UBPL) of R992 per person per month in 2015, compared to 53.2% in 2011. This poverty is highly racialized; for instance, poverty among black African children was 73.6% in 2015, while it was 1.4% for white children.
• The South African government has implemented fiscal austerity measures, including an increase in the VAT rate from 14% to 15% in April 2018 and increases in fuel levies. The document asserts these measures are unwarranted because South African debt, projected at 55% of GDP for the fiscal year, is moderate compared to IMF projections for emerging market and middle-income countries (57.6% by 2023) and high-income countries (105.4% in 2017).
• Public health care is suffering from real-term spending cuts and severe staffing shortages. National and provincial health spending was cut by -0.1% in real terms in 2018/19, and R820 million was removed from the Health Facility Revitalisation Grant. This has led to an exodus of skilled professionals to the private sector due to poor working conditions and unpaid benefits.
• The right to education is eroded by declining real spending per learner, which has dropped by 10% since 2010 across all provinces. The National Treasury announced a reduction in school infrastructure funding by R7.2 billion over three years in the 2018 National Budget. In KwaZulu-Natal, funding for schools in the lowest-income communities has been cut by 15% since 2015/16.
• Corruption and 'state capture' significantly deplete available resources, with corruption estimated to cost South Africa at least R27 billion annually. The document notes that the corporate income tax rate has fallen from 50% in 1990 to 28% today, and illicit financial flows cost an estimated R1.6 trillion between 2005 and 2014.
• The document proposes several alternatives to austerity to expand fiscal space, including: raising the top two personal income tax rates to 28% and 40% (R27 billion), increasing corporate income tax to 32% (R33 billion), implementing a 0S.5% national property tax on residential property above R1 million (R12 billion), and an annual net wealth tax of 1% (R65 billion).

APA

Institute for Economic Justice (2018). SOUTH AFRICA. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/2019-IEJ-S27-CESR-Factsheet-UN-review-min.pdf

Chicago

Institute for Economic Justice. SOUTH AFRICA. 2018. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/2019-IEJ-S27-CESR-Factsheet-UN-review-min.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Institute for Economic Justice |title=SOUTH AFRICA |date=2018 |url=https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/2019-IEJ-S27-CESR-Factsheet-UN-review-min.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{instituteforeconomicjustice2018south, author = {{Institute for Economic Justice}}, title = {{SOUTH AFRICA}}, institution = {Institute for Economic Justice}, year = {2018}, url = {https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/2019-IEJ-S27-CESR-Factsheet-UN-review-min.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }