, DVA3701
ASSIGNMENT 4 SEMESTER 2
2026
DUE 9 SEPTEMBER 2026
The Enduring Poverty in Contemporary South Africa: A Critical Analysis through Marxist and
Dependency Theory Lenses
Introduction
More than three decades since the formal end of apartheid, South Africa remains one of the most
unequal countries in the world, with poverty persistently entrenched across large segments of its
population. President Cyril Ramaphosa has acknowledged that poverty in South Africa has deep
roots, including centuries of colonial and apartheid humiliation, dispossession and exclusion, and
has declared that "the end of poverty and inequality in South Africa therefore requires nothing less
than the fundamental social and economic transformation of our country" (Ramaphosa, 2025). This
enduring poverty demands critical theoretical examination to understand its structural causes and
to chart viable pathways toward meaningful redress. This essay critically discusses the persistence
of poverty in contemporary South Africa through the analytical frameworks of Marxism and
dependency theory, drawing particularly on the work of Giovanni Arrighi and colleagues on
accumulation by dispossession, before proposing integrated solutions that address both structural
legacies and contemporary challenges.
The Marxist Analysis of Poverty in South Africa
Marxist theory provides a foundational lens for understanding poverty as an inherent feature of
capitalist relations of production rather than an aberration or temporary condition. From a Marxist
perspective, poverty in South Africa cannot be understood apart from the country's historical
trajectory of racial capitalism, wherein the exploitation of Black labour was not merely incidental to
capital accumulation but central to its logic (Okowa, 2026). The Marxist historiography that
emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s responded to the inability of conventional social
sciences to explain the prolonged poverty and backwardness in areas of capitalist development,
directing social scientists toward Marxist explanations that foregrounded the relationship between
racial stratification and capitalist development (University of South Africa, 2010).
ASSIGNMENT 4 SEMESTER 2
2026
DUE 9 SEPTEMBER 2026
The Enduring Poverty in Contemporary South Africa: A Critical Analysis through Marxist and
Dependency Theory Lenses
Introduction
More than three decades since the formal end of apartheid, South Africa remains one of the most
unequal countries in the world, with poverty persistently entrenched across large segments of its
population. President Cyril Ramaphosa has acknowledged that poverty in South Africa has deep
roots, including centuries of colonial and apartheid humiliation, dispossession and exclusion, and
has declared that "the end of poverty and inequality in South Africa therefore requires nothing less
than the fundamental social and economic transformation of our country" (Ramaphosa, 2025). This
enduring poverty demands critical theoretical examination to understand its structural causes and
to chart viable pathways toward meaningful redress. This essay critically discusses the persistence
of poverty in contemporary South Africa through the analytical frameworks of Marxism and
dependency theory, drawing particularly on the work of Giovanni Arrighi and colleagues on
accumulation by dispossession, before proposing integrated solutions that address both structural
legacies and contemporary challenges.
The Marxist Analysis of Poverty in South Africa
Marxist theory provides a foundational lens for understanding poverty as an inherent feature of
capitalist relations of production rather than an aberration or temporary condition. From a Marxist
perspective, poverty in South Africa cannot be understood apart from the country's historical
trajectory of racial capitalism, wherein the exploitation of Black labour was not merely incidental to
capital accumulation but central to its logic (Okowa, 2026). The Marxist historiography that
emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s responded to the inability of conventional social
sciences to explain the prolonged poverty and backwardness in areas of capitalist development,
directing social scientists toward Marxist explanations that foregrounded the relationship between
racial stratification and capitalist development (University of South Africa, 2010).
