Poverty within white South Africa

When stories are told about African poverty, race often seems to play a large part. Based in Senegal, Reuters photographer Finbarr OReilly (previously featured here for his work in DR Congo) traveled to South Africa earlier this year and visited one of a growing number of squatter camps populated mostly by Afrikaners white South Africans to document their stories and help show that, despite the fact that impoverished blacks in the region far outnumber whites, poverty is a human issue, not necessarily racial. OReilly: While most white South Africans still enjoy lives of privilege and relative wealth, the number of poor whites has risen steadily over the past 15 years. Researchers now estimate some 450,000 whites, of a total white population of 4.5 million, live below the poverty line and 100,000 are struggling just to survive in places such Coronation Park, a former caravan camp currently home to more than 400 white squatters. Formerly comfortable Afrikaners recently forced to live on the fringes of society see themselves as victims of reverse-apartheid that they say puts them at an even greater disadvantage than the millions of poor black South Africans. (27 photos total)

******** drinks a mug of coffee at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp, South Africa on March 6, 2010. A shift in racial hiring practices and the recent global economic crisis means many white South Africans have fallen on hard times. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

Children play on a tire being used to block the entrance to a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp on March 6, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

Friends talk through the window of a one-room hut at a squatter camp at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp on March 6, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

A man receives a monthly supply of food aid donated to residents of a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp on March 6, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

A woman pushes a cart with a monthly supply of donated food aid at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp, March 6, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

Leone Smit, 41, does dishes in her shack while her son and his friend rest on a bed at a squatter camp in Krugersdorp on March 6, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

**************, sits outside her tent home in Krugersdorp on March 6, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

*********** 29, tells off a boy for digging up snakes in Krugersdorp, South Africa on March 6, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

******* smokes a cigarette at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp on March 6, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

A teenager plays cricket in a squatter camp in Krugersdorp on March 6, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

Girls set up a play house in their garden outside a family shack in Krugersdorp on March 6, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

A resident works on repairing a car in Krugersdorp on March 6, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

*********** does his homework in the kitchen of his family's shack in Krugersdorp on March 6, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

On March 7, 2010 in in Krugersdorp, *********, (center) weeps as he looks down at blood-soaked rags burning in a fire the morning his girlfriend gave birth prematurely and their baby died after a few hours. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

People attend an Afrikaans Sunday service in a makeshift tent church at a squatter camp in Krugersdorp on March 7, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

****** (right) lights a cigarette beside the charred remains of his caravan that burned down the previous night after a candle set it on fire at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans in Krugersdorp on March 7, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

****** enjoys an evening smoke as his wife *******, knits on their bed inside their small single-room hut at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp on March 9, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

A girl puts her hair in a pony tail as she gets ready to walk to school from a squatter camp in Krugersdorp on March 10, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

Girls walk to school barefoot in Krugersdorp, March 10, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

*******, 20, (center) grieves beside her boyfriend, ******* Durant at the funeral for their baby who died hours after she gave birth prematurely in Krugersdorp on March 12, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

************ carries the casket of his baby who died hours after being born prematurely while his girlfriend ********* (left) is comforted during a funeral service in Krugersdorp on March 12, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

Accountant ******** checks his email on generator-powered computers using a wireless modem in a tented home attached to caravan that he shares with six other people at a squatter camp in Coronation Park in Krugersdorp on March 13, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

Residents of a squatter camp in Krugersdorp are served food during a communal meal on March 12, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

Residents of a squatter in Krugersdorp line up for a communal meal on March 12, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

A girl cries after her father beat her in their makeshift home at a squatter camp in Krugersdorp on March 12, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

A woman looks out her window as she drives a car in a squatter camp in Krugersdorp on March 13, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

A woman looks out the window of her one-room hut at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp, South Africa on March 9, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)