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'South Africa has now replaced Brazil as the country with the widest gap between rich and poor'

There's a lot of it about.

But, at least, if viewed through the right prism, it all 'looks' so much better to those who view, and often report through selective rose-tinted optics.

'..you can't undo the damage caused by 300 years of white minority rule in a mere 18 years.'

An argument that, closer to home, seems often less sympathetically received if form the 'wrong' source by many who, perhaps, still have a eye to getting back what they prefer. A gilded minority 'elite' who claim to speak for the poor and oppressed but are not too keen on giving up the trappings they enjoy by cornering the market in saying it if not doing much of substance.

Sometimes 'progress' gets defined by those in control of the edit suite, and too often it's a narrow, even highly personal definition indeed.

South Africa will never actualize full independence until it is able to implement laws that acknowledge & shape South African realities.Such a transformation will be highly contested by minority groups &/or opposition parties that fear fear for their own economic & social interests.
South Africa has a thoughtful, intelligent Minister of Justice, Radebe. He joined African National Congress (ANC) in 1976. After an unsuccessful secret mission by the ANC, Radebe was arrested in 1986, convicted under Terrorism Act of the then Apartheid Govt. He was sentenced to a 10-year imprisonment on Robben Island, released after a successful 12 day hunger strike in 1990.
Radebe: right now, perceived fairness, correctness of law & its application is hugely dependent on historical factors such as one's social standing, education, exposure & more important one's view of how the world operates. Of course one's perception & experience with racial discrimination always has a huge role to play.
Real democracy is the only way to draw together black & white; look at the American justice system & its treatment of black people, and you will see the great divide between black & white justice.

IN SOUTH AFRICA THE RACIAL QUESTION HAS NOT RESOLVED ITSELF & if South Africa is to be seen as fair & impartial, it must promote the transformation of the South African Judiciary so that its make-up reflects the society it seeks to judge. In other words, the South African Judiciary must predominantly consist of blacks at all levels. Without this, there cannot occur true justice.
It is naive to believe that during apartheid & colonialism, laws were interpreted from a perspective of black people; rather, truths & standards were set by the ruling class - white minorities. Most laws were there to protect minority economic & social interests e.g. Cecil John Rhodes. This was interpreted as a "good" thing by the crown because it benefited the crown. Cecil John Rhodes was never hauled before the courts, accused of crimes against humanity, theft & abuse of Africa's natural resources. He was, in fact, rewarded. Blacks perceived all institutions, laws & practices were established to protect white minority capital & advancement of the Western economic & political interests. All assassinations, economic projects, imposition of political leaders, appointments of the judiciary, administrators and civil servants sought only to enhance the economic benefits of the West and local minority groups. That is the quicksand from which South Africa struggles to free herself.
That context is changing, bu not fast enough. The transformation of the judiciary is therefore critical for the progress of the South African. Blacks need to protect social and economic interest 1. by ensuring that no ruling party has cart blanche and 2. second that we have a strong opposing black voice that ensures that standards in the judiciary and the delivery of justice to the masses is not compromised by the interests of the ruling class. Black injustice is a huge problem that can only compromise meaningful social & economic transformation in South Africa.

A local version of state capitalism has fostered South African illusion that the government is in control of the economy – despite youth unemployment levels nudging 50%.
When assessing Jacob Zuma's chances of winning a second term as president of the ANC in December, it is realistic to examine his likely opponents or successors. Almost to a man, they are plutocrats. The only candidate who is not knowingly a multi-millionaire is Kgalema Motlanthe - everyone's favourite as at least caretaker president.
Two substantive runners – Tokyo Sexwale and Cyril Ramaphosa – are acknowledged billionaires, thanks mainly to state-backed deals with South Africa's giant mining houses. Other serious candidates – KwaZulu-Natal premier Zweli Mkhize and JUSTICE MINISTER Jeff Radebe – preside over multi-million-dollar family fortunes. Even Nelson Mandela's grandson Mandla, will inherit a substantial family fortune.
Zuma's position is not lonely in Africa. In Angola, indisputably plutocratic President José Eduardo dos Santos is casting around for a successor this year. Step forward Manuel Vicente, managing director of one of Africa's biggest state companies, Sonangol.
Assessing Jacob Zuma's chances of winning a second term as ANC president it is eye-opening to look at his opponents – plutocrats, almost to a man.
Yet when the black youth sing, these are songs praising Malema and calling for Motlanthe for President; you hear these songs over sound systems, as well as shouts of "Viva Malema" & "Viva Limpopo"
Colonialism has not ended in S. Africa, Democracy is writhing in birth pangs. The Judiciary needs reform...Backs must stop imitating powerful whites, & gather the courage to build black foundations in black ways, especially towards a black judiciary of merit.

The poor present perplexing problems for governments as they allocate incentives and contracts to the well off and allocate meaningless amounts to the poor. The governmental bureaucracies have a vested interest in the poor remaining poor. Those who escape poverty are presented as examples to other poor that they lack initiative and it is their own fault for remaining poor. One should note that there are different types of poor. In many places people eek out a living scratching the dirt but grow and earn enough to be sustaining. When isolated from the governments they can be satisfied with their lives and the maintaining of their traditions. The tentacles of Consumerism reach out and tell them they are poor and need to be in a position to purchase more....mainly not to their benefit but to make others wealthy. The promises of Capitalism have not proven to solve these matters. Poverty is a relative term. These are systematic problems and the systems have no incentive for things to change. Competing bureaucracies waste much of the resources and corruption takes most of the rest. There are real issues of cultural costs related to economic advancement and not everyone sees the trade-off as good. In the modern world you are what you own...your beliefs, traditions and culture have no value. Presently providing the poor with iPods and cell phones is believed to be the magic solution...I have never tasted either...I hope they come with recipes.

Although I have not followed SA in recent years, I thought many years ago (over a decade ago) that Thabo Mbeki was taking SA down the wrong path. We on the left called this the neo-liberal path, which is to sell-out to foreign multinationals instead of concentrating on internal development which in the SA case of course refers to upgrading the education and economic prospects of the vast black underclass. In Mbeki's favor was the fact that the West was booming in those days so there were many eager multinationals waiting to take advantage of the situation. This caught up to Mbeki when the world economy went "south" in 2007-9. After his ouster, it appears that the momentum of neo-liberal illusions continued under Jacob Zuma except that more than for Mbeki, corruption zoomed, to take up some of the slowing growth in the West. Of interest to me is the growing privatization of vital water and electricity resources which is of course occurring everwhere else in an increasingly resouce challenged world.