LEARNING AND ACADEMIC SKILLS

LITERATURE REVIEW
COURSEWORK 1

MODULE CODE: SBL 102

GOABAONE KOKOLE
AF22-005
Table of Contents
Abstract.........................................................................................................................2

Introduction...................................................................................................................3

Body

Relationship between inherited circumstances and inequality in the general SACU

region............................................................................................................................4

Relationship between inherited circumstances and inequality in South Africa............4

Factors contributing to economic inequality in South Africa........................................5

Ways of implementing equality solutions in South Africa.............................................6

Conclusion....................................................................................................................8

References...................................................................................................................9

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Abstract
Rising incidents of inequalities compelled by inherited circumstances is an increasing
concern in the SACU region. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship
between inherited circumstances and inequality. Data was collected from different
school databases like google scholar and the Botswana Accountancy College online
library where the ProQuest and Ebsco databases were used. Different synonyms
were used, for the keyword economic inequality words like “economic disparity” and
“income inequality” were used. For inherited circumstances words like “background
circumstances” and “background characteristics” were used. Results showed that
inherited circumstances and inequality have a relationship. Furthermore, more
research needs to be done to identify other causes of economic inequality.

Keywords: Inherited circumstances, economic inequality,databases

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Introduction

Economic inequality and inherited circumstances are now a major subject matter in
sociology study. Despite that, there are contradictory judgements and views together
with shortage of research to a larger degree with respect to inherited circumstances
and economic inequality. The aim of this research is to recognize and evaluate the
relationship between inherited circumstances and inequality in the SACU region and
in South Africa. This study also intends to identify the factors contributing to
economic inequality as well as how South Africa can undertake the solutions of
inequality. Included in this section are the study background, the research problems,
the aims, the limitations and the structure outline of the research.

Inherited circumstances are conditions that you must deal with which are acquired
from the deceased (Walter, 2022) and economic inequality is the unequal issuance
of resources (Bapuj, Ertug, & Shaw, 2022). Most researchers (Siphelele, 2022) and
(Thulethu, 2022) agree that inequality is caused by inherited circumstances.
However, less research has been done regarding inherited circumstances and
inequality. Therefore, the available studies on this topic are not enough for future
researchers. Because of that, this study aims to do more research on inherited
circumstances and inequality. This research will be of help because it solves the
existing shortage of research in this topic. The limitation of this study includes limited
access to resources as some resources from google scholar needed payment to
access. Limited time is another obstacle encountered, if we had up to next year
maybe there may have been more sources for the review. In the first section the
background of the research is introduced. We find the review of the existing literature
in the second section and lastly, we find the conclusion and the references.

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Relationship between inherited circumstances and inequality in the general
SACU region

Inherited circumstances and inequality have a relationship in the SACU region. A

cluster of studies by (Thulethu, 2022) and (Monitor, 2022) suggested that inherited
circumstances compel inequality primarily in the SACU region. Results showed that
twenty percent of the inequality in the SACU region is described by inherited
circumstances like age, gender, location, ethnic group as well as parental
background.

These researchers highlighted that ethnic group is the major factor of inherited
circumstances. A question that needs to be asked however is that does gender as
an inherited circumstance overpower ethnicity. (Siphelele, 2022)also makes a valid
point that disparities at birth are a major cause of inequality in the SACU region. He
further states that member countries of the SACU are the most unequal countries in
the world. This study tells us that inherited circumstances cause inequality in the
SACU region.

Relationship between inherited circumstances and inequality in South Africa

Inherited circumstances like gender and race leads to payment of unequal

remuneration in South Africa. White employees receive higher wages and positions
compared to people in other racial groups (Matotoka & Odeku, 2022).He also adds
that South Africa is well known for racial inequalities resulting in other people being
left out from economic participation. This illustrates that inherited circumstances and
inequality in South Africa are interrelated. Similarly, (Herald, 2022) states that race
as a factor of inherited circumstances has a crucial part in inequalities in South
Africa.

He says that one’s identity contributes forty one percent of the income in equality in
South Africa. He also highlights that colonialism and apartheid carries on with
promoting inequality in South Africa. In this milestone, (Stoddard, 2022) found out
that where people are born and raised have a profound impact on their lives. In the

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same way, he states that colonialism and apartheid continue to strengthen
inequalities in South Africa. From all these studies, we can pick up that inherited
circumstances play a key role in inequality in South Africa.

Factors contributing to economic inequality in South Africa

(Maistry, 2021) found that economic inequality in South Africa is brought about by
Covid-19 pandemic. Moreover, the country faced calamitous results of Covid-19.
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Findings reveal that the economy decreased by % last of last year. This causes
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economic inequality in a sense that people lost employment meaning that they may
not have money and those with jobs will have more money than the unemployed
hence we say Covid-19 has led to economic inequality in South Africa. However, few
research related to this topic makes it confusing to tell whether Covid-19 is still a
cause of economic inequality in South Africa in the year of 2022.

After a careful number of searches in different educational research databases and

journals, (ContentEngine, 2022) found that economic inequality in South Africa
comes from the tradition of apartheid and colonialism. He explains that this is where
people were discriminated in terms of race and gender directing to all the economic
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inequality in South Africa. The findings of this researcher show that % of the
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income inequality is brought about by race. He further explains that the distribution of
agricultural land originating from colonial times also causes inequality.

From my point of view, this implies that agricultural land was given to the favoured
only. They would use this land for agricultural production, sell agricultural produce
and eventually make profit. This will mean that those given agricultural land will have
more economic power than those who were denied access to land. He also
highlighted that gender also guides to income inequality in South Africa. He adds
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that statistics show that women’s income is % less than that of the opposite
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gender. Similarly, (Francis & Webster, 2019) also found out that labour markets
caused economic inequality which are categorised into gender and race.

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Additionally, (Polus, Kopińsk, & Tycholiz, 2021) suggests that high unemployment in
South Africa caused economic inequality. This research highlights that
unemployment is the major cause of income inequality in South Africa. This means
that people with employment would get income monthly from their jobs while those
unemployed will be left with no income. This explains why there is income inequality
in South Africa.

(Hyland, Djanko, & Goldberg, 2020) noticed that another cause of economic inequality in
South Africa includes laws of the country which affects the economic opportunity of
women. He explains that one of the laws included excluding women from taking part
in some professions. The researcher said that women are underprivileged when it
comes to issues of reimbursements which contributes to economic inequality
between man and women. One may ask if there are no women in the executive of
the country because if there was one, there is a doubt that women would find
themselves in situations like these.

A study (Chatterjee, 2019) reveals that income inequality is brought about by

differences in the employee’s efforts, efficiency, and effectiveness. This briefs us that
the employee’s contribution to their work leads to differences in income received by
employees. For instance, employees who put more effort in their work will obviously
get more income than employee with less effort. However, this study would have
been more useful if it further explained how employee’s efforts leads to economic
inequality.

Ways of implementing equality solutions in South Africa

A review of literature (Ed, 2022)showed that the first policy can be implemented
through enhancing early childhood programmes in the country. This may be seen as
an unimportant initiative but on the other hand this is an exceptionally good initiative.
Equality of opportunity can be approached through offers by businesspeople to all
people. He says that there are some offers to equal opportunities like enhancing civil
service delivery. However, The ANC has tampered this proposal. There is notice that
few research has been done on ways of implementing the policy which involves
promotion of equal opportunity and quality education.

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(Ed, 2022) also noted that the second policy could be implemented through growth of
sole traders. He says that this policy can be approached through the removal of
business laws that hinder external funding. A reviewer might ask question, what
about economic prosperousness? This researcher further states that the policy can
be implemented through maintaining psychosocial skills and business skills. This
sends us word that South Africa has been trying hard to fulfil this policy.

(Fall & Steenkamp, 2020) reported that the last policy is implemented through legislative
amendments of life insurances and retirement schemes. This is very crucial because
it will help the old and retired people to be able to sustain and maintain their living
standards. This researcher highlights that the policy is approached through stretched
community service to the vulnerable. He further states that welfare savings like death
benefits and disablement benefits are also put in place. (Matthew, Kuper, Banks, &
Karl, 2019) discovered that this policy is implemented by development of projects
like offering the vulnerable with scholarships, accommodation and medical care. This
is worth noting because it may help the handicapped to maintain their health
statuses.

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Conclusion

This review of literature will sum up the research by concluding the findings of the
study as well as research questions. Additionally, it will consider the limitations and
weaknesses of the research and present some opportunities for the upcoming
studies. This study aimed to recognize if there was any relationship between
inherited circumstances and inequality in the SACU region and in South Africa.
Moreover, the study intended to investigate the factors contributing to inequality in
South Africa and look over the ways of implementing equality solutions in South
Africa in each of the policies suggested in the article. The outcomes showed that
inherited circumstances and inequality inter-relates in the SACU region and in South
Africa.

Furthermore, the factors which contributes to inequality in South Africa includes high
unemployment, differences in employee’s efforts, Covid-19, apartheid and laws of
the country. Results showed that the policies can be implemented through
enhancing civil service delivery, legislative amendments of life insurances removal of
business laws that hinder external funding and enhancing childhood programmes.
Based on these conclusions future researchers should consider studying more
deeply on the factors contributing to economic inequality in other member states of
the SACU region. The research has helped to resolve the problem of few research
on some research questions by coming up with solutions of how the policies can be
implemented. This study has also been able to do more research on the research
question of factors contributing to economic inequality.

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References
Bapuj, H., Ertug, G., & Shaw, J. D. (2022). organizations and societal economic
inequality, 14(1).

Chatterjee, A. (2019). Southern Centre for Inequality Studies. Measuring wealth

inequality in South Africa: An agenda, 36(6), 840.

ContentEngine. (2022). CE Noticias Financieras, English ed.; Miami. South Africa is

the most unequal country in the world,according to the World Bank, 1.

Ed, S. (2022). Daily Maverick[Blog];Capetown. South Africa the world’s most

unequal country –, 2.

Fall, F., & Steenkamp, A. (2020). OECD Economics Department Working. Building
an inclusive social, 7.

Francis, D., & Webster, E. (2019). Development Southern Africa. Inequality in South
Africa, 36(6), 733.

Herald, T. (2022). The Herald;Harare. SA tops in inequality ranking, 1.

Hyland, M., Djanko, S., & Goldberg, P. K. (2020). Gendered Laws and Women in the
Workforce. Gendered Laws and Women in the Workforce, 2(4), 474-476.

Maistry, S. (2021). Education as Change. South Africa’s Comorbidity: A Chronic

Affliction of, 2.

Matotoka, M. D., & Odeku, K. O. (2022). African Journal of Gender, Society and
Development. Unequal Remunerations in the South African Private, 11, 81-

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Matthew, W., Kuper, H., Banks, L., & Karl, B. (2019). International Centre For
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Monitor. (2022). Income distribution; Inequality. Africa: New World Bank Report
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Siphelele, D. (2022). SA maintains its status as most unequal country. 1.

Stoddard. (2022). Poverty; Upward mobility; Income inequality; Employment;

Consumption; Apartheid;. South Africa the world’s most unequal country, 2.

Thulethu, Z. (2022). Business day;Johannesburg. UPLIFTMENT - Inequality in SA,

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Wachira, C. (2021). South Africa faces the conundrum of widening income

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Walter, E. (2022). Cambridge advanced press. (2).

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