ABSTRACT
The South African government has targeted the halving of poverty by 2014. This study uses income and expenditure microdata to frame this goal in terms of specific measures of the poverty gap and poverty headcount ratio. This forms the basis for an analysis of under what growth and distributional scenarios the target could be achieved. The disappointing record of income poverty reduction since democratization in South Africa highlights the challenge of significantly cutting poverty. The actual policies that could be implemented to reduce poverty fall outside of the scope of this chapter. Rather, the focus is on what the commitment to halving poverty means in terms of growth and distribution. The existing literature mostly points to an increase in poverty in South Africa in the late 1990s. A study published by the South African government claims decreases in the poverty gap and the poverty headcount ratio between 1995 and 2005, attributing these primarily to government's social welfare grants.
