"South African president to examine white poverty"

CAPE TOWN - South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki agreed on Thursday to study data indicating a sharp rise in white poverty, seen by some critics as a consequence of his government's post-apartheid affirmative action policy.

A decade after the end of white rule, most of South Africa's wealth remains in the hands of the white minority and the government is driving efforts to empower millions of poor black people.

But critics of black economic empowerment say it benefits only a few elite black businesspeople and is not filtering through to the masses, while such policies shut some whites out of jobs and contracts.

Mbeki was asked on Thursday to respond to statistics from the University of South Africa's Bureau for Market Research that showed unemployment among white South Africans has increased by 200 per cent since 1994.

"If indeed there are consequences of government's actions which are resulting in greater impoverishment, clearly that is something we will have to look at," Mbeki said.

Full Article : nzherald.co.nz