ANC leader Jacob Zuma promised on Thursday to break the silence on white poverty as he met Afrikaans residents of a township living without running water or electrity.

Zuma, favourite to become only the third black president of South Africa at elections next year, said he had been shocked and embarrassed by the plight of the residents of Bethlehem, situated on the outskirts of the capital Pretoria.

"I am shocked and surprised by what I have seen here," said Zuma.

"The vast number of black poverty does not mean that we must ignore white poverty which is increasingly becoming an embarrassment to talk about."

Although the level of unemployment among the country's one million whites is only around a fifth of the overall jobless rate, research says the numbers of them living in poverty are growing.

The trade union Solidarity, whose membership is mainly made up of Afrikaans, handed Zuma a report which claimed that unemployment among whites was increasing by nearly double that of the national average.

The visit by Zuma to Bethlehem — his second this year — is seen as highly symbolic given resentment among sectors of the white community that President Thabo Mbeki's government has done little to address their plight.

AFP