Economists: Indians benefited from apartheid
Indians benefited from being less oppressed under apartheid, one economist said, while another said there may be no grounds for Indians to be BEE beneficiaries.
|||Durban - Being less oppressed during apartheid has worked to the relative advantage of Indians, according to a Durban economist, while another leading economist has argued there were no grounds for making Indians beneficiaries of black economic empowerment policies.
Both were commenting on findings that the Indian population had seen the fastest growth in per capita income in recent years, as revealed in a report by Standard Bank this week.
“Even though we were all oppressed, we were not equally oppressed,” said economist, Professor Bonke Dumisa.
After 1994, the “Indian population was more advantaged than other races”, he said.
According to the report released on Monday, white South Africans remain at the top of the heap in the earnings’ pile, but Indians are catching up.
The report found that whites had the highest income - an average per person of R215 000 a year, while blacks have the lowest, at R29 000.
Between 1996-2014, the Indian/Asian population saw the fastest growth in per capita income - 468%, according to the report prepared by Standard Bank economist, Siphamandla Mkhwanazi.
“In relative terms, for every R1 earned by white individuals, blacks earn 13 cents and this has not changed since 1996,” the report said. It said that for every R1 earned by whites, Indians earn 51 cents, up from 43 cents in 1996 and 50 cents in 2011.
Dumisa said businesses were now pushing the Indian population up in the corporate world and not black people.
He contended this was deliberately done because it set black people against Indians, while white people sat and watched them fighting.
“It is a sensitive issue that must be discussed; however, people don’t want to discuss it,” Dumisa said.
If one tried to raise the issue “you are branded a racist”, he said.
Economist Dawie Roodt, who has recently completed his own research on “empowerment”, said there was no reason for Indian people to be included in economic reform.
“In 1994, the average Indian was earning eight times more than an Indian in India, today, it’s five times that,” Roodt said.
He believed Indians should not be included in black economic empowerment policies because, when adjusted for qualifications, their unemployment levels were lower than those of whites.
“Indians have relatively few kids and old people. The number with qualifications has skyrocketed and unemployment is falling. It is a sweet time for Indians.”
Roodt explained that, in general terms, there were four factors which contributed to the well-being of any society.
These were: how many children they had; the number of old people; the number of employed and the nature of their qualifications.
The number of dependants in the black community had decreased in recent years, in relative terms, but was still much higher than the other races.
The qualifications gap between the majority and other races remained wide.
White people were on top because they had fewer children, low unemployment and excellent qualifications, said Roodt.
However, he believed they were “running out of time” because they were an ageing population.
The Standard Bank report also noted that the gap between well-off and poor blacks has widened since 1996, while among whites there is lower intra-group income inequality and this figure has narrowed.
However, the roll-out of services and welfare payments, together with growth in disposable income, have been credited with lifting many out of the lower living standard measure (LSM) groups, according to the report
There were now fewer people in the poorest - LSM 1 - category, down from more than 1 million adults in 2008 to about 661 000 adults in 2011, to fewer than 500 000 in 2015.
The adult population was clustered around LSM 4-7 categories, accounting for more than 60% of the total. But migration to the higher LSMs (LSM 8-10) seems to have stagnated in recent years.
Of those in the LSM 1 category, 65% are from the Eastern Cape.
Of those in the richest category - LSM 10 - 40% are in Gauteng.
Together, KZN, Gauteng and the Western Cape account for 83% of those living in the highest standard.
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