The authors use evidence from a survey of about 1200 beneficiaries of South African land reform to assess the performance of the initial phase of the land reform program. They find that the program has not lived up to the quantitative goals set, but did successfully target the poor. It has led...

This report is one of two commissioned by HelpAge International (HAI), which investigates the extent, distribution and nature of chronic poverty among older people in South Africa. In response to the terms of reference provided by HAI, the report includes a comprehensive review of existing...

South African experiewith efforts to implement land reform thus far indicates that to realize the potential and help solve the problems rural areas face, the government's land reform program needs to get beneficiaries, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector more involved. Land...

Using a longitudinal survey of South African households over the 1993-2004 period, this paper evaluates changes in income distribution since the end of apartheid. Inequality amongst these households has markedly increased this period as initially better off households consistently improved their...

Social capital has been identified as an important avenue of upward mobility for poorer people. However, recent theoretical work suggests that in highly polarized societies, the accumulation of social capital is likely to be fragmented and ineffective for people at the bottom of the economic...

Using three waves of the KwaZulu-Natal Income Dynamics Study (KIDS), panel data collected in South Africa’s most populous province between 1993 and 2004, this paper re-investigates patterns of chronic and structural poverty previously identified from the first two waves. The 2004 wave...