Here are some facts about SA's racial divide.

UNEMPLOYMENT

SA has struggled for years with low economic growth and high unemployment. The official unemployment rate was 33.5% in April-June of this year.

During that period, the unemployment rate was 37.6% among Black South African and 7.9% among white South African, according to the statistics agency. It was 23.3% among South Africans of mixed race.

The unemployment rate among black people has consistently been higher than the national average over the past decade and has risen more than nine percentage points since 2014, Statistics SA  said.

MANAGEMENT CONTROL

In the private sector, white people occupied 65.9% of top management level posts while black people occupied 13.8% in 2022, according to SA's Commission for Employment Equity.

SA's population of 64 million is about 8% white, official data shows.

The statistics show that the percentage of Black people increases as the job level goes down to senior, professional, skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled.

At the unskilled labour level, white people occupied 0.9% of jobs in the private sector and Black people 82.8% in 2022.

OWNERSHIP

Average black ownership of companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange was almost 30% in 2022, according to the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Commission, which includes other minority groups such as mixed race and Asian people in its count.

However, the report is based on a small sample size of firms that submitted their information. One economist calculated that actual black ownership among listed companies was about 1%.

Board membership on listed companies was around 47% Black in 2022, the Commission said in its latest report, adding that this showed potential progress but that limited data meant it did not necessarily represent industry performance.

"No entity registered 100% Black-owned within the JSE listed companies," it said.

--Reuters--