Figure 12: Private net transfers by race, 2015
In South Africa, White children receive the highest amounts of private spending from within their own households (i.e. from parents or caregivers) compared to children of other races. African children receive the least, followed by Coloured and Asian children. Source: Oosthuizen, 2019
The figure above shows that although the graphs for the different races follow the same pattern, their magnitudes vary significantly. Net private transfers peak at over R170,000 for White children between the ages of 14 and 17 years, compared to about R75,000 for Asian, R40,000 for Coloured, and R20,000 for Black children in the same age group. These transfers represent the differences in private spending on children. Given the differences in peak lifecycle earnings between races in South Africa, this is not surprising. Despite inter-household transfers being so small in magnitude, they display an interesting characteristic. Unlike the other racial groups, inter-household transfer outflows peak at 2% of labour income at around 50 years of age and remains close to almost 1% into old age for Africans, compared to a peak of around 1% for other races at the same age which tapers off to nearly zero in old age. Oosthuizen postulates that this indicates that supporting other households (inter-household transfer outflows) represents a greater burden for Black households compared to other races, which is in line with the concept of “Black tax”. It also provides a quantitative depiction of how South African households are ‘stretched’ across urban and rural locations.
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INEQUALITY AND DEMOGRAPHY
