IJR

COVID-19 has caused widespread disruptions in society and the economy, but how has it affected long-term national planning? A new publication from the Bureau for Economic Research (BER), in collaboration with the IJR, provides an assessment of South Africa’s progress towards the 2030 goals of the National Development Plan (NDP).

Inclusive Economies began 2021 with two new publications assessing the state of South Africa’s economy, society and body politic. Drawing on insights from the South African Reconciliation Barometer (SARB), a nationally representative public opinion survey of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR), we find that South African’s are feeling a sense of growing economic insecurity underpinned by worrying employment prospects. In 2019, South Africa recorded its highest number of protests and riots in the 21st century. In the same year, nearly half (42%) of South Africans perceived a worsening of their employment opportunities since 1994 while nearly three in four (72%) of South Africans link present-day poverty to historical disadvantage under apartheid. This parallels the lived reality of South Africans who experience income deprivation, with as many as 18% of black South Africans, 9% of Coloured South Africans and only 2% of white South Africans reporting regularly going without an income.