The South African Civil Society Information Service

Focus on Extreme Poverty in South Africa

4 May 2015

Some of the worst recent violence against migrants in South Africa - who many locals accuse of taking their jobs - happens in neighbourhoods of extreme poverty. A 2014 World Bank study found that about half of South Africa’s urban population lives in informal settlements or townships. The report argued that they are home to about 60 percent of the country's unemployed. While the South African government claims it will tackle what it describes as the root causes of the problem, including poverty, unemployment and immigration, analysts argue that it is failing so far. Al Jazeera's Charles Stratford reports from Johannesburg.

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