[1] Although South Africa was a founding member of the World Bank, its first loan agreement wasn’t signed until 1951, in the amount of $20,000,000.
The most recent report on South Africa identified five fundamental causes associated with poverty and inequality in the country: insufficient skills related to education and vocational training, skewed asset bases for the poor and weak property rights that deter investors, low competition and low integration into global and regional value chains, limited connectivity and inadequate services in historically disadvantaged settlements, and climate shocks that disrupt the economy and availability of jobs.
[5] Since joining the World Bank in 1945, South Africa has accepted fifteen separate loans from the World Bank to fund a broad spectrum of national development projects ranging from energy, agriculture, finance, trade, sanitation, and more.
Of those 15 loans, all but two have been closed, with remaining repayments still outstanding for nearly 5 billion USD in original principal.
The nationally owned power utility Eskom is responsible for this infrastructural development and has received the majority of the disbursements from active project loans.