had been manufactured in their own countries; but they did not invest
much capital in new enterprises or create many new jobs. Moreover, some
of the funds promised by foreign governments for development were not
claimed for many months-through
bureaucratic bungling. 54
By 1996, it was evident that the economy was not growing at a rate suf-
ficient to fund the RDP program. After the declines in 1990-93,
the gross
domestic product per head grew by only 0.6 percent in 1994, 1.2 percent
in 1995, and 1.0 percent in 1996, when it was still far below the 1981
level. In 1996, gold production fell to its lowest level in forty years, the
rand declined by 21 percent against the u.S. dollar, and unemployment
reached a shocking level. According to the Central Statistical Service, in
1995 29 percent of those aged fifteen and above were unemployed, an-
other 12 percent were employed in the informal sector, and only 59 per-
cent had jobs in the formal sector. This burden fell heavily on those who
lacked skills and were not white: 37 percent of Africans aged fifteen and
above, 22 percent of Coloureds, and 15 percent of Asians were unem-
ployed; but only 6 percent of Whites were unemployed, an excellent level
in industrial societies.P At the other end of the labor market, there was a