Though South Africa has provinces full of poor people, and cities teeming with middle-class consumers, we can at least fill a World Cup soccer venue with our wealthy compatriots.
If you take all the households that earn more than R100000 a month, you would just about fill Soccer City, according to the TopEnd 2013 Survey, released by Ramsay Media Research Solutions.
And of the country’s 80000 most- affluent individuals, more than a third have a household income upwards of R200000 a month, according to the survey.
The top 10% have a monthly household income of R500000 or more.
The data shows that there are almost seven white millionaires for every black one, according to Alan Todd, a partner at RMRS. But that, he said, is changing, with black millionaires gaining ground.
“The fact that 70% of millionaires feel they are much better off now than they were five years ago speaks volumes for the onward and upward march of South Africa’s most affluent consumers.”
The Bureau of Market Research last week released its household wealth index, which showed that the economic recession of 2008 was still ringing in the average household’s ears.
“Households have lost five years of wealth, which might force some of them to postpone their retirement and/or start saving more,” read the report.
The bureau said, with the high inequality in South Africa, “chances are good that some households possess high net wealth values, while the majority possess net wealth values significantly lower”.
The Top End Survey reveals that as many as 73% of the country’s wealthy are company employees, while 20% are self-employed.
Four out of 10 have some sort of sideline income to add to the spoils of their corporate jobs, with 59% earning a monthly income from their investments. – timeslive.co.za