Factbox-The racial divide in South Africa’s economy

By Nellie Peyton

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Thirty years after the end of apartheid, South Africa’s economy remains deeply divided by race, spurring political debate on the extent to which its flagship Black economic empowerment law has worked. 

Here are some facts about South Africa’s racial divide.

UNEMPLOYMENT 

South Africa has struggled for years with low economic growth and high unemployment. The official unemployment rate was 33.5% in April-June of this year. 

During that period, the unemployment rate was 37.6% among Black South Africans and 7.9% among white South Africans, according to the statistics agency. It was 23.3% among South Africans of mixed race.

The unemployment rate among Black people has consistently been higher than the national average over the past decade, and has risen more than nine percentage points since 2014, Statistics South Africa said. 

MANAGEMENT CONTROL

In the private sector, white people occupied 65.9% of top management level posts while Black people occupied 13.8% in 2022, according to South Africa’s Commission for Employment Equity.

South Africa’s population of 64 million is about 8% white, official data shows.

The statistics show that the percentage of Black people increases as the job level goes down to senior, professional, skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled.

At the unskilled labour level, white people occupied 0.9% of jobs in the private sector and Black people 82.8% in 2022. 

OWNERSHIP

Average Black ownership of companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange was almost 30% in 2022, according to the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Commission, which includes other minority groups such as mixed race and Asian people in its count. 

However, the report is based on a small sample size of firms that submitted their information. One economist calculated that actual Black ownership among listed companies was about 1%.

Board membership on listed companies was around 47% Black in 2022, the Commission said in its latest report, adding that this showed potential progress but that limited data meant it did not necessarily represent industry performance.

“No entity registered 100% Black-owned within the JSE listed companies,” it said.

(Reporting by Nellie Peyton; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

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