News24 | Domestic worker earns in 2 years what a CEO makes in 1 day, new report finds

• South Africa’s richest 1% hold 54.9% of national wealth, while the bottom 50% have more debt and liabilities than assets, according to an Oxfam report.
• The report said that the country’s eight billionaires – worth a combined R730 billion – added roughly R382 million per day to their wealth in 2025.
• The report warned that extreme inequality is eroding democracy, with 63.5% of households being food insecure and 23.2 million people living below the poverty line.

It will take a domestic worker earning minimum wage two years to earn what one of South Africa’s highest-paid CEOs earns in just one day. This is among the findings of a report by Oxfam South Africa, released on Thursday, that shows the richest 1% hold 54.9% of national wealth, and the richest 10% hold 85.7%.

The gap between rich and poor is so wide that it would take someone in the bottom 90% of South Africa’s population 345 years to accumulate the wealth held by the average person in the richest 1%.

“South Africa has one of the world’s highest levels of income and wealth inequality, and today’s extreme levels of inequality amount to a violent assault on those at the bottom of the economic and social power ladder,” the report reads.

“There is an extreme and growing gulf between the ‘have lots’ and ‘have nots’, compounded by and further exacerbating deep structural racial and gender divisions.”

The report recorded that South Africa’s recognised eight billionaires are worth a combined R730 billion. In 2025, they added roughly R382 million per day, and their combined real wealth is up about 130% since 2020. South Africa’s single richest billionaire owns more than twice the combined wealth of the poorest 70% of the population, the report stated.

“The fortunes of these super-rich are booming and growing at an alarming rate. In 1994, the richest 1% of the population held just under half of the national wealth. This had increased to 54.9% by 2024,” the report found.

At the same time, the “wealth” of the bottom 50% of the population had fallen from a negative -2,1% to a negative -2,5% by 2024, meaning that their debts and liabilities outweigh any wealth and assets they own.

While South Africa’s richest have been accumulating wealth, the average income in South Africa has fallen since 2011. The report cites data from Statistics South Africa’s Income and Expenditure Survey, which showed that the average annual household income nationally stood at R209 883 in 2011. However, it had slipped to R204 359 by 2023.

White-headed households, already the highest earners at R691 929 in 2011, remained far ahead at R676 375 in 2023. Black African-headed households – the largest population group – posted the largest proportional gain over the full period, rising from R98 407 in 2006 to R143 632 in 2023, but in 2023 still earned less than a quarter of what white-headed households earned.

The per capita income for white South Africans is on par with Denmark, while for black South Africans it’s comparable to Bangladesh, the report highlighted.

“Wage inequality is persistent and growing. Real wage increases have primarily benefitted the highest-paid earners in skilled jobs in the formal sector. Between 2003 and 2015, the top 5% of earners saw their wage income grow by 5.1%, which was double the rate of gross national income growth, while for the remaining 95% of the population, wage income stagnated or showed marginal growth,” the report reads.

“For instance, in less than four hours today, one of South Africa’s highest-paid CEOs will earn what a domestic worker earning the minimum wage will earn in an entire year.”

The report showed that wealth inequality in South Africa outstrips that of other countries. In 2024, the richest 10% in the USA and Brazil captured 71.9% and 69.5% of the wealth, respectively, compared to 85.7% in South Africa.

“Today, great wealth for the privileged few exists alongside levels of poverty and deprivation that are indefensible in Africa’s largest economy. Almost two-thirds (63.5%) of South African households are food insecure, and over one-third (23.2 million people) live below the lower-bound national poverty line,” the report said.

Oxfam calls for five priority interventions: the adoption of a time-bound, measurable National Inequality Reduction Plan with concrete targets; placing women at the centre of economic policy; taxing extreme wealth through a progressive net wealth tax; investing massively in public healthcare, education and universal social protection; and pursuing international cooperation on global taxation, fair trade, and greater representation for the Global South in multilateral institutions.

Pooven Moodley, acting executive director at Oxfam South Africa, said that South Africa’s inequality crisis is not primarily about income, and “it is certainly not about a shortage of wealth in the country”.

“It is about who owns that wealth, and how little has changed about that ownership since 1994,” he said.

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“None of this is presented as an accusation against wealthy South Africans personally. In fact, one of the report’s more interesting findings cuts against the usual script: in a survey of South African millionaires in 2025, 70% said they would support a 2% wealth tax if it funded social protection, education or the energy transition, and 85% agreed that extreme concentrations of wealth pose a threat to democracy itself. The resistance to taxing extreme wealth, in other words, may be less widespread among the wealthy than politicians assume.”

Moodley added that the government should not be let off the hook.

“Alongside its call to tax extreme wealth, it insists that any new revenue raised must be matched by real governance reform,” he said.

“South Africa has spent three decades treating inequality as a problem to be managed at the margins, through grants, through incremental redistribution, through policies that expand access without touching who owns the underlying assets. The question is no longer only how much the state should spend. It is who has been allowed to keep so much, for so long, and what it would actually take to change that.”

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There are far-reaching impacts of the inequality, according to the report.

“It is dismantling participatory democracy. High levels of inequality erode the social contract between the government and its citizens and destabilise democracy. A 2024 study modelling the relationship between inequality and democratic erosion estimated a predicted risk of democratic erosion of 31% for South Africa, compared with 4% for Sweden,” the report said.

“When large groups of the population feel excluded from economic progress and decision-making, their faith in the political system erodes. Meanwhile, rich elites can use their wealth and privilege to gain undue influence over policymaking and shape policy according to their own interests. This all paves the way for political capture by populist candidates and governments that promote divisive and damaging policies for their own gain.”

Yet, the inequality can be addressed, and South Africa has the resources, institutions and policy tools to reduce it, the report said.

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“Extreme inequality dilutes the power and voice of the majority in all facets of life. What South Africans need is the sustained political commitment by those with the power to effect change to reshape society by reshaping the economy that currently continues to concentrate wealth, opportunity and power in the hands of a few.

“While no single intervention can reverse centuries of structural inequality, a focused set of reforms can begin to shift the country towards a more just, inclusive and resilient economy.”