Reg Rumney
Between 1990 and 1994 the income of squatters in=20 Gauteng declined in real, or adjusted-for-inflation,=20 terms while that of hostel residents stayed much the=20 same and those living in houses were much better off.
This is the finding of a Unisa Bureau of Market=20 Research report on income and spending of black=20 households in Gauteng.
Squatter households were 11,7 percent worse off in 1994=20 than in 1990; hostel residents’ incomes rose 1,6=20 percent; and households in houses were 35,3 percent=20 better off – all in real terms.
This is not to say blacks living in houses are exactly=20 wealthy. In 1994, the average black man and woman=20 earned R21 555 and R20 884 respectively. The average=20 black household had an income of R24 416.
And the BMR reckons the average income of a black=20 person in Gauteng was R7 455 — around R720 a month.
Single black people, however, are estimated to have on=20 average a much higher annual income, of=20
R16 220. For households with with six or more members=20 the the income per person is R3 651.
The income per person in households with six or more=20 members living in houses is lower at R4 079 than that=20 of households with three members living in squatter=20 shacks, at R5 132.
Disparities of wealth are large even among blacks in=20 the richest South African province. The survey shows=20 that in 1994 annual the household income of squatters=20 was around R14 000. This is less than half the income=20 of households living in houses, of around R32 000.
Black households in Gauteng, according to the BMR,=20 spent 26,1 percent of the cash income on food. Income=20 tax made up 9,1 percent, and housing 9,0 percent of=20 their cash spending.
Shack-dwellers spent 37,1 percent of their total=20 spending in cash and kind on food, compared with 28,9=20 percent for hostel dwellers, and 23,6 percent for those=20 living in houses.