By Duncan Bartlett BBC World Business Report

Eight years after the end of apartheid many people still complain the pace of change has been too slow, and there is still a huge economic divide along racial lines.

So just how much progress has been made in getting black people into positions of real responsibility in South Africa?

In Cape Town the majority of blacks still live in poverty just a few minutes bus ride away from their wealthy white neighbours.

But efforts are being made to get more black people into good jobs.

Limited opportunities

It is the start of a new term at Sophumelela Secondary School, and the learners have gathered for assembly.

Around 900 teenagers attend the school, all of them black.

"Our children must be competitive"

Marthinus van Schalkwyk, Western Cape premier

Most live in sheds of corrugated iron and wood in the surrounding shanty town of Phillipi.

School principal Dhanan Naidoo says even though most of his pupils pass their exams, job opportunities are extremely limited.

"In as much as our country seems to be enjoying a positive growth rate, the reality for me on the ground is that more people are losing their jobs and that it is, in fact, difficult to get a job," he said.

"And given the fact that many of my learners are Khosa speaking and they are African children, that puts them at a greater disadvantage, particularly when trying to seek employment."

Investment

Unemployment in South Africa is running at around 30% so jobs and business are major talking points in the Townships.

Radio Zibonele, which operates out of the back of a disused container lorry, plays the latest Kwaito hits.

It also covers news and current affairs affecting the Khosa speaking community.

Station manager Epaph Mbesi said his listeners are hoping more companies will put money into the black townships.

"Investment is definitely needed in the community but I think one of the things that goes together with investment is skills development," he said.

"The job opportunities are quite small but then people are eager to work hard to produce high quality material which is of a good standard."

"I think those are the things that investors would be very much keen to know and be interested to find out."

Education

The most senior politician in the area is the premier of the Western Cape, Marthinus van Schalkwyk.

He admits that progress in achieving racial equality has been slow.

"We have a system of affirmative action in South Africa which is controversial but we need that in terms of our history," he said.

"But over the longer term there are only two ways to really break poverty and to ensure more equal distribution of wealth, and that is good education for all the children in our province and secondly that we continue to generate wealth and that our economy grows."

To ensure this happens Mr Van Schalkwyk said the first in-service training institute for teachers is to be launched soon, aiming to put a good quality teacher in every classroom in the province.

Secondly, he said, an academy for maths, science and technology is to be launched.

"Our children now have to compete with children in other parts of the world and our children must be competitive."