Poverty crisis deepens in KZN -Stats SA reveals

A stark reminder: 23.2 million South Africans live below the lower-bound poverty line, with KwaZulu-Natal ranking the highest. Provincially, KwaZulu-Natal now ranks number one in terms of lower-boundpoverty levels(the poverty threshold forces difficult trade-offs between food and other necessities) at 49.6%. This is in the context of 23.2 million people in South Africa, representing 37.9% of the population, living below the lower-bound poverty line, according to the latest figures from Statistics South Africa’s Income and Expenditure Survey (IES) conducted in 2023.

During KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli’s Premier’s Coordinating Forum (PCF) on Friday, Bongani Radebe of Statistics SA noted that in terms of poverty, the IES of 2023 indicated that 68.8% of South Africa’s income is derived from work. In KZN, it is 63.8% while 12.5% is derived from pension and social insurance, which includes grants and others. Radebe highlighted that the IES of 2023 has allowed them to review national poverty lines.

According to the 2023 Income and Expenditure Survey, 23.2 million South Africans, representing 37.9% of the population, live below the lower-bound poverty line. “With food poverty lines, we’re at R777, which is the threshold of absolute deprivation where a household will have no choice but to buy food. And those who are at the lower-bound poverty line, where the poverty threshold forces difficult trade-offs between food and other necessities, are now adjusted to R1,300.

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The upper-bound of the line is at R2,635 (the poverty line below which people cannot afford the basic lifestyle that most South Africans consider necessary),” Radebe said. He said these figures translate to 23.2m (37.9%) of people inSouth Africafalling below the lower-bound poverty line. Moreover, 17.6% or 10.8m people fall below the food poverty line while 66.7% or 40.8m people fall below the upper-bound poverty line.

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