Wide Angle : Road to Riches (2003)

Genres - News [TV]  |   Sub-Genres - Race & Ethnicity, Finance & Investing, Politics & Government, Social Issues  |   Run Time - 60 min.  |   Countries - United States  |  
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Synopsis by Hal Erickson

Ten years after South Africa abolished apartheid in 1993, there was still a disturbing amount of racial inequality in the nation. While whites in South Africa earned a yearly average of 6,300 dollars, blacks averaged a mere 950 dollars. And of the country's 16 million blacks, half lived in direst poverty, a far greater percentage than the rich-to-poor ratio amongst whites. But there were many in the country who were determined to improve the bleak financial situation shared by most of South Africa's population. As part of the African National Congress' overall Empowerment Policy, a consortium of black-owned companies called Uthigo created a national lottery, designed not only to stimulate the economy but to provide new hope for those who'd all but given up trying. Focusing on Uthigo, in general, and its black CEO, Humphrey Khoza, in particular, Road to Riches was first telecast in America as part of the PBS documentary series Wide Angle.

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Keywords

South-Africa, Black [race], economics, inequality, lottery, empowerment, opportunity, poverty, wealth, government, Apartheid, social-change