In other news, water is wet and the DA is tearing itself apart.

Just don’t stick the knife in about the ‘Mini-Mandela’ drama, because you probably didn’t get the full truth.

Of course you don’t want to be poor in South Africa, and this isn’t exactly breaking news, but two recently released World Bank reports show exactly why it’s such a massive problem.

Quartz have all the charts, but before we get to that let’s start here:

More than half of the population already lives in poverty, and a further 27% of the population live in a state of susceptibility to poverty. These 27% are referred to as the transient poor by the World Bank in it’s report “Overcoming poverty and inequality in South Africa.” On the other hand 20% of the country can be considered middle class, while only 4% of the country is considered elite. In comparison, Mauritius’ middle class is nearly 80% of the population.

South Africans in the top-earning income bracket earn nearly five times more than the average low skilled jobs, according to the report. That disparity creates a gulf of two economies in one country…

We’re not alone in that disparity, but in South Africa the divide along racial lines is obviously rather prominent.

This graph is a good illustration:

The thing about poverty is that it’s a mighty tough cycle to break:

 Two fifths of sons born to very poor fathers will never get out of the the bottom 40% of the next generation’s income distribution, according to World Bank’s South Africa Economy Update. The chances of a boy born into the bottom 20% of the income distribution even reaching the top 20% for one year are slim, at just over 16.2%. Nearly 43% of boys born into the top 20% reach those heights.

Money begets more money, and in this country that’s part of what we call ‘white privilege’:

And, as we know, the rich just keep on getting richer:

Another sad bit of info for you to nibble on:

The Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (ASGISA) was a compromise that aimed to halve unemployment in 10 years, but implementation was hindered by political power playing…

These policy decisions have created so-called missing middle in various sectors of society who are becoming increasingly dissatisfied. It is glaring in South Africa’s higher education. Categorized as households who earn less than 600,000 rand per year ($47,800), the students who make up the missing middle don’t qualify for national assistance, but they simply can’t afford to pay tuition.

They made up the thousands of young people who created the #FeesMustFall movement, and they are overwhelmingly black. Only 5% of black students are likely to graduate, compared to 15% in 1975. In contrast, the number of white graduates had increased slightly during the same period.

The long and short of it all? The ranks of the impoverished are swelling far faster than those able to climb out.

[source:quartz]