Agenda Deep class and racial divisions mark South Africa - a legacy of apartheid. Almost three-fourths of the poor live in woefully underdeveloped rural areas.
Many people lack adequate housing and access to basic social services.
One by-product of the widespread impoverishment is a rising crime rate, now a major national problem. The democratic governments elected since 1994 have placed poverty and inequality at the centre of their development agendas. South Africa's anti-poverty policies were part of its Reconstruction and Development Programme, begun in 1996 to engineer growth through increased public expenditures on such items as housing, electricity, water, education and health. The challenge is to translate economic growth into job creation, human development and economic power for the poor. The government puts priority on addressing the lack of access to basic social services.