For quite a while, the real test of the health of an economy has been the middle class. As I recall, from the time of the French Revolution, the term was the bourgeoisie.

One of the things that has troubled me about the policies of the current government is that we don't seem to be moving the poor and the middle class too much. The success story, such as it is, has been in terms of developing a wealthy black class. But the middle class, which is what really counts, hasn't seen much black progress.

About six months ago I was chatting to a business broker who had an interesting observation. We were talking about black business owners, and particularly the wheelers and dealers that buy and sell. His comment was that they were always there. But there has been no real growth in numbers.

Then there's this comment:

The so-called black middle class does not really exist, says politician turned businessman Saki Macozoma.

"It is a [mere] conceptual construction," Beeld newspaper's business section reported him as saying on Wednesday.
full story from M&G here
So why aren't we seeing a rapidly emerging black middle class?