S. Africa urged to tackle disparity of wealth

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson Sunday urged the South African government to take drastic steps to deal with disparity of wealth in the country.

"Where you witness extremes of wealth side by side with dire poverty within the same country, it is more divisive than an overall condition of poverty," Robinson said while delivering the 10th annual Nelson Mandela lecture in Cape Town.

Inequality, poverty and crimes were some of the major problems the country had to overcome, she said, adding that she was particularly shocked by the disparity of wealth in the country.

She criticized the lack of ability in traditional institutions of democracy, such as parliament and local authorities to tackle corruption and inequality.

South Africa's Gini coefficient, an internationally used measure of income inequality, stood at 0.7 in 2008, the highest in the world, indicating that inequality has kept increasing since the fall of apartheid, the World Bank said in its latest report.

The top 10 percent of the population accounted for 58 percent of South Africa's income, while the bottom 10 percent accounted for just 0.5 percent of income, and the bottom 50 percent less than eight percent, according to the report.

Turning to crime, Robinson noted that levels of crime and violence in some areas in the country also meant that people were living in unmanageably traumatic situations.

The former Irish president also drew attention to the underperformance of the education system, high illiteracy, rising unemployment and disparity in resource allocation.

"You have both the positive resource and the acute problem of a young population with high unemployment and a deficit of skills," she said.

Robinson stressed the need to provide support and resources to young people to help them complete their education and learn skills before accessing a job market where jobs could be found.