Despite significant policy interventions since the end of apartheid, South Africa remains one of the most unequal countries in the world, with the legacy of racial discrimination continuing to drive extreme disparities in income and wealth. 

This is according to the latest 2025-27 paper on Racial Inequality and Redistribution in Post-Apartheid South Africa, which shows that while the post-apartheid government has implemented various redistribution policies, these have limited success in narrowing the overall wealth gap and have led to rising inequality within racial groups, particularly among Black South Africans.

This study has been published ahead of the international launch of the World Inequality Report 2026, which is expected to be released on Wednesday (10 December 2025).

The study was conducted by researchers Léo Czajka and Amory Gethin.

Czajka is a postdoctoral researcher at the EU (European Union) Tax Observatory, which is established at the Paris School of Economics (PSE). His work focuses on topics such as tax enforcement and inequality in low- and middle-income countries.

Gethin is a key researcher at the World Inequality Lab hosted by the Paris School of Economics.

His research focuses on the intersection of economic inequality, public policies, and political change in contemporary democracies.

Since the end of apartheid in 1994, the government has introduced a range of policies, specifically designed to address the profound racial inequalities inherited from the previous regime. These initiatives aim to promote equality and ensure that previously disadvantaged groups have equitable access to opportunities. These include affirmative action, land redistribution and reform, social services and housing, and education and healthcare reform. 

However, South Africa still stands as the most unequal country. 

By 2019, factor income inequality was still marginally higher than the level recorded in 1993, evidenced by a Gini coefficient of 0.81 and the wealthiest 10% receiving 70% of the total income share.

The White-to-Black per capita factor income ratio dropped substantially, from 17 in the mid-2000s to 9 in 2019.

“We estimate that almost 50% of this reduction was due to the exceptional growth of top 10% Black incomes (relative to growth of lower deciles). Despite reaching its lowest point in history, the White-to-Black factor income ratio remains extremely high,’’ read the report. 

As a comparison, Black earnings were 80% of those of Whites in the United States in the mid-2010s,  while the Black-to-White wealth ratio was about 18%. 

Meanwhile, Black South Africans earned 17% of the average disposable income and owned 6% of the average wealth of White South Africans in 2019. 

“Our new database allows us to further illustrate this divide by analogy with international disparities: in 2019, average per capita factor income among Whites was close to the average per capita national income of Denmark, while average income among Black South Africans was close to that of Bangladesh,” read the report, which added that disparities are striking as well among Black South Africans, with average income in the top 10% comparable to average income in Italy, while the average income of the bottom 90% is similar to that of Zimbabwe.

An economist, Johann Els, said if the government is serious about reducing these inequalities, it should significantly enhance economic policies to attain much higher sustained growth.

“Enable the private sector to assist the government and SOEs (state-owned entities)  to reduce structural inefficiencies (some policies have been enacted in electricity supply and logistics, but a lot more can be done!). Privatise SOEs, empower the private sector, reduce labour market rigidities, invest significantly in infrastructure, plus allow the private sector to invest,’’ he said.

Els added: “In short, improve policies to boost confidence. Reduce red tape, make it as easy as possible, and as cheap as possible for the private sector to start and expand their businesses. Follow sound policies and build strong institutions. Only through sustainable, much higher economic growth will we be able to reduce inequalities by boosting employment and income growth.”

Political analyst Professor Sipho Seepe said this shows that South Africa has failed to break the back of the apartheid architecture.

Seepe said the “democratic experiment” has failed to deliver on its promise of a better life for all, and instead, South Africa has earned the dubious dishonour of being a poster child of global inequality.

“Evidently, black people, who form the majority in this country, have failed to transcend the 1994 political compromises. The failure is due in part to their ideological and historical naivety on the one hand, and poor, if any, proper theorisation of the post-1994 political dispensation. Black people misread the political breakthrough,” said Seepe. 

Another political analyst, Zakhele Ndlovu, said even though the government has made education more accessible, in the process, it has dumbed down the quality, which resulted in companies preferring to hire graduates from private colleges and foreign skills.

manyane.manyane@inl.co.za

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