An extensive campaign has been launched by trade union Solidarity to break through the silence which surrounds the growing poverty of many hundreds of thousands of white South Africans - mostly Afrikaners.

• They say that the government is ignoring the fact that the Poor White Problem is now taking on crisis proportions.

Solidarity launched the campaign to put pressure on the ANC-government so that they will also start helping poor white communities - which now are denied access to any kind of government poverty-relief programs

Of course while the number of whites in SA is considerably less than other population groups, it’s as worrying fact that the number of poor white people has,increased by 95% between 1996 to 2005 - a much faster growth-rate than for any other group in the country, he pointed out.

• The poverty increase among black people was 13,7%, among mixed-race people 17,3% and among the Indian population, 21%.