White people are doing pretty well in South Africa, despite what Trump claims

Debate, prompted largely by US President Donald Trump’s stance on South Africa, has raged over whether South Africa is legislatively discriminating against white people.

See, on the one hand, the Race Law website, and on the other, “South Africa does not have 142 racist laws. Here’s what the claim gets wrong”.

As our graphs this week show, white people are doing very well in democratic South Africa. By nearly any measure of wealth and educational attainment, whites are doing better than any of the other apartheid-defined racial groups.

There is a possible exception, though: the lowest-earning 20% of white people are poorer than the lowest-earning 20% of black people, according to an analysis published in 2024.

But this finding needs further research, as it could be because of the small sample size or a measurement error.

A question post-apartheid governments have to answer is: How do we grow the economy and create a more racially equal society?

Anyone who thinks the answer to this question is simple, or that the question itself isn’t important, fails to understand South Africa’s political complexity.

The government’s answer to this question has been a policy of affirmative action and black economic empowerment.

There are vehement criticisms to be made about South Africa’s anti-discrimination laws and black economic empowerment (BEE).

BEE has created a massive bureaucracy and a dubious consulting industry that assists companies in navigating Byzantine laws.

Whites are a declining portion of the civil service, which deprives the state of much-needed skills. Many BEE policies arguably benefit the elite at the expense of poorer people. But ignoring the picture that our graphs today paint hinders sensible debate.

This article was originally published by GroundUp and The Outlier, and has been reproduced with permission.