Black middle class even stronger

Johannesburg - South Africa's growing black middle class is showing resilience to the global financial crisis, boosted by their spending power which grew by more than a third last year, a survey found on Monday.

About three million people are now in the class known as the "Black Diamonds," still a small minority of the country's population, but the survey found that for the first time their spending power matched that of their white counterparts.

"The most impressive finding is that they have shown resilience to the global and domestic financial decline, increasing their spending power from R180bn in 2007 to R250bn this year," said Rudo Maponga of TNS Research Surveys.

"The black diamonds' earning power has increased and the majority of them are becoming more financial savvy, which minimises the risk of getting caught up in debt," added Maponga.

An earlier survey by TNS showed that only 10% of the black middle class had been affected by the credit crunch and South Africa's high interest rates, resulting in their assets being repossessed.

Middle-class black women are faring particularly well, and now account for 40% of the R120bn spent annually by all South African women.

"Almost half of the women interviewed said they earned over 50% of the household income, whilst over 80% said they were the main household decision makers when it came to the majority of purchases," said Maponga.

The study was conducted in August and polled 1 500 blacks in major metropolitan areas.

The term "Black Diamond" was coined by the University of Cape Town's Unilever institute and TNS when they documented a first study in 2005 into the changing patterns of South Africa's consumer spending.

Experts say South Africa's emerging black middle class is one of the fastest growing in the world, rising from poverty since the end apartheid in 1994.

They say normally it takes four to five generations for a person to rise from poverty to the middle class.

Since the end of apartheid, South Africa has passed laws to introduce employment policies aimed and balancing the gaping economic divide created by the white-minority government.

- AFP