Why is South Africa Still So Unequal?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 12 May 2015
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The violent riots on the streets of South Africa in recent weeks have seen foreigners killed, their shops looted and 5,000 left homeless. They are accused of taking jobs from locals in a country where high unemployment is a big concern - and an example of the gaping chasm that remains between rich and poor. So 21 years after Nelson Mandela pledged to liberate all South Africans from the continuing bondage of poverty and deprivation, why is South Africa one of the most unequal societies on the planet?
(Photo: South African man waves a stick in the air, while demonstrators are chanting. Credit: Stefan Heunis/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless |
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| 0:21.0 | And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less |
| 0:24.9 | searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:29.3 | BBC World Service this is Helena Merriman with the inquiry. |
| 0:40.4 | This week, why is South Africa still so unequal? |
| 0:45.0 | It's early morning in Alexandra, a township north of Johannesburg. |
| 0:50.0 | People are emerging from their homes, |
| 0:52.6 | assessing the damage from the previous night's attacks on shops run by foreigners. |
| 0:57.6 | Smashed windows, glass and metal strewn across the street. |
| 1:02.2 | The stench of burning tyres. Suddenly a flash of |
| 1:07.8 | metal. A man with a wrench runs towards another in a red shirt and starts to beat him. |
| 1:14.0 | Another joins in, stabbing him with a knife. |
| 1:18.0 | People watch hands to their mouths. |
| 1:22.0 | The attackers soon flee and the injured man is driven to a clinic. |
| 1:26.9 | A few hours later, he's dead. The phone in his pocket reveals that he was from Mozambique. |
| 1:34.2 | One more foreigner killed in the later spate of xenophobic violence. |
| 1:39.4 | Thousands of immigrants have now fled since the attacks began with foreigners accused of |
... |
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