By Nyasha Dube
Seven richest African men have more wealth than the poorest half of the continent’s population, says Oxfam in its recently released report on inequality and global corporate power, raising concerns over how the unfair distribution of wealth weighs heavily on women and other marginalized groups.
Oxfam released the report “Inequality Inc.” in Davos this week, which highlighted how the rich continue to be richer, whilst the poor continue to be poorer.
According to the report, the world’s five richest men have more than doubled their fortunes from $405 billion to $869 billion since 2020 —at a rate of $14 million per hour— while nearly five billion people have been made poorer.
The report further states that if the current trends continue, the world will have its first trillionaire within a decade, but poverty will not be eradicated for another 229 years.
“Our rigged economies are benefiting the super-rich while governments are struggling to provide crucial public services like healthcare and education to Africans across the continent. Governments must step up and ensure corporations stop squeezing workers, dodging tax, and plundering our planet in their quest for massive profits.If left unchecked, these corporations will continue to widen the inequality gap,’’ said Oxfam in Africa Director Fati N’zi-Hassane.
In an exclusive interview with Oxfam Southern Africa Director Machinda Marongwe, Women’s Weekly Journal established that the rural populace is disproportionately affected by unequal wealth distribution.
“An assessment conducted by Oxfam shows that in Zimbabwe, rural women are largely impacted by the unequal wealth distribution because of their vulnerability and government’s failure to mobilise sufficient resources due to tax evasion. This means not much is left for public spending hence less resources to sponsor rural development. This worsens poverty in the rural margins,” said Marongwe.
He added, “The main challenge especially with rural populations is unequal access to national resources. This means less resources are available for a bigger population thereby creating tensions in communities, leading to the increase in Gender Based Violence (GBV). This means the quality of women deteriorates, and this is also fueled by the patriarchal nature of African communities.”
Marongwe also stated that the unequal distribution of earnings means that women, especially those in the agriculture sector, earn less for their labor.
“Much of the income is concentrated in corporates and men, and this means that women who form the backbone of agriculture in Zimbabwe get less returns for their labor, yet they have to work longer and harder. Most women also engage in undocumented and unremunerated care work. As more resources are being accumulated by a few people, more women are pushed further into poverty and this is not sustainable,” Marongwe said.
The report shows how a “war on taxation” by corporations has seen the effective corporate tax rate fall by roughly a third in recent decades, while corporations have relentlessly privatized the public sector and segregated services like education and water. African countries are nearly twice as reliant as OECD countries on revenue from corporate income tax to fund their public spending.
An estimated $200 billion is lost annually due to corporate tax avoidance, with Global South countries tending to suffer the impacts disproportionately. Meanwhile, people worldwide are working harder and longer hours, often for poverty wages in precarious and unsafe jobs. The wages of nearly 800 million workers have failed to keep up with inflation and they have lost $1.5 trillion over the last two years, equivalent to nearly a month (25 days) of lost wages for each worker.
Marongwe further called for progressive taxation, lowering value added tax for the rural woman and reviewing of taxes for corporates and the few wealthy.
N’zi-Hassane echoed the same sentiments saying, ‘‘African governments don’t need magic to create a more equal Africa. They just need to do their job. They must shut down the open bar of resource plundering, break up monopolies, tax the super-rich and use these resources to invest in inequality-busting policies.”