In 2025, South Africa entered the fourth decade of its democracy. Yet democracy has not yet delivered on creating a more equal society, South Africa faces staggering inequality. Unemployment sits at 33%—with youth joblessness above 46%—while over 28 million people rely on social grants to survive. At the same time, South Africa boasts Africa’s most advanced financial system, where banks, corporations, and executives record soaring profits.
This first profile in Open Secrets’ new series, Who Owns South Africa, explores the deep structural divide between the fragile “bottom” and the powerful corporate “top.” The System: Money, Power and Politics reveals how concentrated private wealth,…
Marine Conservation: The country has established several marine protected areas
to conserve marine biodiversity and ecosystems.
Guillotine
El Salvador: You have two cows. They are less likely to get cut open than you.
fast draw
When Oscar Pistorius said he wanted to be just like able bodied athletes, who knew he meant OJ Simpson?