Editorial: Two countries in one

It’s been 25 years since the official end of apartheid, yet it lives on, entrenched within everything that really matters – access to quality healthcare, education, housing, employment and basic services.

The inequality trends report released by Stats SA this week depicts a country that is still very much divided.

Inequality remains stubborn. It manifests itself along racial, geographical and gender lines. Inequality affects people in ways that really matter.

The report shows stark differences between salary levels along race lines. The same goes for the employment rate.

And despite concerted efforts to bridge the gender inequality gap in South Africa, women lag behind their male counterparts in almost every sphere.

Inequality affects access to opportunities and personal growth, as the internet-less poor are practically cut off from the connected world.

Inequality is vicious and, once entrenched, is difficult to eradicate. It is passed down from generation to generation, as is social status.

“Children of top earners have a higher probability of being top earners themselves, and this shows a strong transmission of advantage from one generation to the next at the top end of the labour market,” reads the report.

“Children of earners at the bottom of the earnings distribution have a very good probability of being low earners themselves.”

It is clear that we need to break this cycle of inequality; to bridge the gaping chasm between the haves and the have nots.

These are the beginnings of hope that it could be the start of a new cycle.

This report is the first of its kind. Its goal was to show “how the many dimensions of inequality intersect to reproduce poverty and inequality”.

But it will also help to highlight the interventions and policy coordination that is going to be required for South Africa to achieve a more equal society.

It has given government and society a map. And now that we can see where we are, we can also see where we are going and what we need to do to get there. It is time we get to work, otherwise future generations will be trapped in this rut.

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City Press is an agenda-setting South African news brand that publishes across platforms. Its flagship print edition is distributed on a Sunday.