JOHANNESBURG - White South Africans earn six times more than black South Africans nearly two decades after the end of apartheid and much remains to be done to reduce the disparities between rich and poor, the president said after the release of the country's census.

"These figures tell us at the bottom of the rung is the black majority who continue to be confronted by deep poverty, unemployment, and inequality, despite the progress that we have made since 1994," President Jacob Zuma said of the South Africa Census 2011 released on Tuesday.

On the positive side, people's access to basic services, such as clean water, electricity and garbage removal has more than doubled in the same amount of time, he said. And more South African dwellings have TVs than refrigerators and more cellphones than electric or gas stoves, the census said.

South Africa's population has increased by 7 million people in the last decade to 51.8 million by October 2011, according to the census. And for the first time in the three censuses conducted since 1994, the number of people identifying themselves as colored - a term used by the government for people of mixed race - is higher, at 4.62 million, than those who describe themselves as white at 4.59 million. More than 41 million describe themselves as black and 1.3 million as Indian or Asian.

A breakdown of the population also shows that close to 60 percent of the population is under 35. There are more children under the age of four, with 5.6 million, than in each of the 5-to-9 or 10-to-14 age brackets.

The average household income in South Africa has more than doubled in the past decade, according to the census, which said that households earned an average of 48,000 rand ($6,000) per year in 2001 compared to 103,204 rand ($12,900) by October 2011.

Planning Minister Trevor Manuel said the income distribution among race and gender groups was the most startling of the figures.

"It confirms our worst fears and I think it presents us with an enormous challenge," he said.

The average annual income for black households was 60,613 rand ($7,500) in 2011, according to the census, while white households earned an average of 365,134 rand ($45,600) per year.

Meanwhile, households headed by women earned on average 67,330 rand ($8,400) in 2011, compared to 128,329 rand ($16,000) for male counterparts.

The census figures on services said nearly 1.3 million households did not have access to piped water, and the majority of those households are black.

Poverty also remains an issue with more than 1.2 million "informal" dwellings around the nation, including squatter camps, but not including the 712, 956 shacks. And while just over 8.2 million households have flushing toilets that connect to a sewage system, 748,597 households around the country have no toilets at all.

"Much remains to be done to further improve the livelihoods of our people especially in terms of significant disparities that still exist between the rich and poor," said President Zuma. "Government departments must now use this information wisely in planning for the extension of services."

He referenced a National Development Plan to eliminate poverty, reduce inequality and address the problem of unemployment. The plan says that the poor should be able to have a toilet, clean water, food, stable housing and heat by the year 2030. It also says that each community will have a school, library, teachers, a police station with "upright" police and a health clinic with nurses.

The spokesman for Malawi’s main opposition, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) says the party is strong, and it is the future of the country.

This comes as President Joyce Banda remarked Friday that the resignations of both the DPP vice president and secretary general within one week were a sign of “failed leadership” in the party.

Former DPP Secretary General Wakuda Kamanga has since joined the ruling People’s Party (PP).

DPP Publicity Secretary Nicholas Dausi said the defections are not a sign of a weak opposition, but rather the DPP is going through what he called a political metamorphosis whereby its members are exercising their constitutional right of freedom of association.

“It’s a sign of failed leadership. I think we are going through a political metamorphosis where people are exercising their constitutional inherent right to freedom of association,” he said.

Dausi said the DPP is stronger in that it has almost 78 members of parliament, and the party is the only for the Malawian people.

President Joyce Banda said she has never seen, in her life, a vice president and secretary general of one political party resign within one week.
Butty interview with Dausi

Former DPP Secretary General Wakuda Kamanga has since joined the ruling People’s Party (PP).

President Banda called on the DPP to put its house in order by making policies that will retain its members.

Dausi said defections from political parties are not limited to the DPP.

“I don’t think it’s fair to say that we have a failed leadership. I don’t think that’s fair to say that our house is in disarray. In any case, so many members of parliament have left People’s Party to join DPP, to join the opposition. We haven’t said that is a sign of failed leadership. We feel if members of parliament are leaving People’s Party to join DPP, in our view, it is sign that we are strong and we are the only party that can be counted,” Dausi said.

He said multiparty democracy in Malawi during President Joyce Banda’s leadership is strong, but Dausi hopes the ruling party will not coerce opposition members to join the ruling party.

“The multiparty democracy, in our view as opposition is strong. We are only hoping that the government will not give so many incentives or will not coerce and create something that will make the opposition, namely its members to leave the party,” Dausi said.

JOHANNESBURG — Thousands of gold miners returned to their shafts in South Africa on Friday after a pay deal to end the wave of strikes that had halted production of the precious metal, operators said.

AngloGold Ashanti and Harmony Gold reported large worker turnout, but production will take a few days to resume as safety procedures need to be carried out first.

"AngloGold Ashanti is pleased to report that most workers have started returning to the three West Wits mines this morning," the company said in a statement.

Harmony reported that by end of Thursday 98 percent of its workers had returned and was checking whether the remaining two percent had proper excuses for still being absent.

"We will only be in full production most likely towards the end of the weekend. We will only see our first production shift on Sunday evening," Harmony spokeswoman Marian van der Walt told AFP.

Gold Fields is the only operator which still has a mine shut after it sacked 8,100 striking workers on Tuesday.

At AngloGold Ashanti's Mponeng, TauTona and Savuka mines, the "focus now is on preparing these operations to ramp up production safely," the company said.

For those who have not yet returned, AngloGold Ashanti said the dismissal process is proceeding. It did not give numbers still staying away since the strikes in the gold mine sector started last month.

Gold Fields' KDC East mine is still shut after it sacked 8,100 strikers, of which 7,300 have appealed to get their jobs back. It will likely re-open sometime next week after processing the appeals.

Only only one of its mines, Beatrix, is back in full production.

"Our KDC West returned last week and most of the shafts have started hoisting ore from underground but full production will only be ... early to middle of next week," Gold Fields spokesman Sven Lunsche told AFP.

On Thursday the gold mine owners and leading unions signed a pay deal to end months of often violent labour unrest that has cost the South African economy at least $1.2 billion.

But a small and splinter union rubbished the deal claiming it was imposed on the workers.

"This is the kind of tendency that some so-called big unions are making everyday by undermining mandate-givers which are the workers," said Joseph Mathunjwa, leader of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU).

South Africa, the continent's top gold producer, has over 100,000 people employed in gold mines, most of them concentrated to the west of commercial hub Johannesburg.

The work stoppages have halted production at numerous leading mines in the country's vital sector, with strikers spurred on by a wage increase of up to 22 percent won by Lonmin platinum miners in September.

Over 50 people died in the worst spasm of labour violence to hit South Africa since apartheid, which ended 18 years ago.

JOHANNESBURG - A spokesman for Gold Fields says the company has fired 8,500 South African miners who have been striking at one of its operations outside Johannesburg.

Sven Lunsche said on Tuesday that the miners, who have been striking since Oct. 14, have until Wednesday to launch an appeal. Gold Fields, one of the world's top producers of gold, on Monday issued an ultimatum to workers at its KDC East operations in Carletonville to return to work by Tuesday or face dismissal. The ultimatum was similar to the one issued earlier by Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), which fired 12,000 workers for staging an illegal strike. The fired miners say they will make it difficult for Amplats to hire new workers.

Lunsche said Gold Fields had beefed up security to prevent violence.