South African census shows continuing racial inequality
Members of South Africa’s census record the first baby born at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto on October 10, 2011.
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — While the income of black South African households has increased by 169 percent in the last decade, whites still earn on average six times more, a national census has found.
President Jacob Zuma said the 2011 census, released Tuesday, showed that much more needs to be done to bring equality to the country, 18 years after after the end of racist white minority rule, SAPA reported.
"These figures tell us that at the bottom of the rung is the black majority who continue to be confronted by deep poverty, unemployment and inequality, despite the progress that we have made since 1994," Zuma said.
The census put South Africa's population at 51.8 million, nearly 80 percent of whom are black people.
Zulu is the language most often spoken language in South African homes, followed by Xhosa.
Zuma said access to basic services such as water, electricity and garbage removal had more than doubled since his party, the African National Congress, took power in 1994.
"However, much remains to be done to further improve the livelihoods of our people, especially in terms of [the] significant disparities that still exist between the rich and poor," he said, according to SAPA.
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