"South Africa, the largest country in SACU (Southern African Customs Union, editor's note), is the most unequal country in the world, ranking first among 164 countries", declared the institution of Washington in a report entitled "Inequalities in Southern Africa".
Previous reports had already placed the country in the sad first place of the ranking.
Thirty years after the end of apartheid, "race remains a key factor in strong inequalities in South Africa, due to its impact on education and the labor market", estimates the World Bank.
Ethnic origin contributes 41% to income inequality, and 30% in education.
"The legacy of colonialism and apartheid, rooted in racial and spatial segregation, continues to reinforce inequalities," the report says.
Africa's leading industrial neighbors that form SACU, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho and Namibia, all top the list of most unequal countries, making the region the worst in the world, says the organization.
Gender also plays an important role.
In the region, women earn on average 30% less than men with the same level of education.
The pay gap between men and women reaches 38% in Namibia and South Africa.
The uneven distribution of agricultural land is also a factor, especially in rural areas.
In Namibia, 70% of the 39.7 million hectares of commercial agricultural land "still belong to Namibians of European descent", underlines the World Bank.
The report produced before the Covid-19 crisis, which worsened poverty, is based on the Gini coefficient, an indicator of income inequality, to rank countries.
© 2022 AFP