Life
South Africa: Poverty a human issue
A man receives a monthly supply of food aid donated to residents of a squatter camp for poor white South Africans. (REUTERS/Finbarr O’Reilly)
When stories are told about African poverty, race often seems to play a large part.
Despite the fact that impoverished black Africans in the region far outnumber white Africans, poverty is a human issue, not necessarily racial.
While most white South Africans still enjoy lives of privilege and relative wealth, the number of poor whites has risen steadily over the past 15 years. Researchers now estimate some 450,000 whites, of a total white population of 4.5 million, live below the poverty line and 100,000 are struggling just to survive in places such Coronation Park, a former caravan camp currently home to more than 400 white squatters.
