We use the first three waves of data from the National Income Dynamics
Study (NIDS) to analyse poverty dynamics in South Africa between 2008 and
2012. Restricting ourselves to the sub-sample of balanced panel respondents, we
find that poverty exit rates increased with time, though a substantial proportion of
the population was trapped in severe poverty, defined as having income of less than
half of the poverty line. The importance of demographic events in the household
as drivers of poverty transitions are highlighted in a univariate and multivariate
setting. Finally we look at the joint distributions of multidimensional poverty and
income poverty in order to ascertain the extent to which they complement or offset
one another.