South Africa's economy after Apartheid

As South Africa gears up to go to the polls on 22 April, how does the economy look to South Africans themselves?

This country knows contrasts perhaps like no other. A third of families live in what officialdom calls "an informal structure". That's a shack to you and me.

Alexandra Township is in the heart of Johannesburg - just a short drive from the gleaming shops and business parks of the city.

It is a teeming mass of people in poverty, where unemployment is sky high. People make what they can in what's called the informal economy. There are goats being herded here, right along side metal-bashing enterprises, in the dusty open air.

So how has the economy of the "new" South Africa measured up for the citizens of the country?

Steve Evans went on a tour of this poor part of Johannesburg, starting with a visit to Esther Ratshefola, on Alexandra's Ninth Avenue.

First broadcast on Business Daily on 27 March 2009