South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Thursday bemoaned despair and poverty among many of its 48-million population more than 14 years after the demise of white-only apartheid regime.

"The harsh and ugly truth that confronts us is that... almost 15 years into democracy, the everyday lives of many of our people remain as uninspired and as filled with despair as it was then," he said at a public lecture.

The lecture was organised in memory of Steve Biko, an anti-apartheid activist and leader of South Africa's Black Consciousness Movement, who died in apartheid prison on 12 September, 1977.

More than four-million South Africans live below the poverty line, according to government figures.

Manuel said that despite independence, squalor in many townships and run-down communities, "stark inequalities," diseases, violence, crime, poverty and mediocrity still dominated the nation's landscape.

Nelson Mandela in 1994 became South Africa's post-apartheid president following the demise of apartheid.

"Democracy is something to fight for, constantly. Development is not something handed out at the welfare office. It is... giving communities power to changes their lives, empowering young women and men to make contribution to our beautiful country," said Manuel, Finance Minister since 1999.

South Africa, the continent's economic powerhouse, last month launched a nationwide campaign against poverty.