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40 Fighting the Diseases of PovertyFigure 2 Number of public and private hospital beds inSouth Africa2004120,000100,000105,66580,00060,00040,00020,00026,5930PublicPrivateare private, there are indications that close to half the populationmay use private health services. This can be shown by building apicture of the South African health market, bearing in mind thataccurate numbers are not available and wide variations are found inpopulation and poverty statistics.According to official figures, South Africa had a population of44.8 million people in October 2001 (Statistics South Africa, 2003).Poverty estimates range from 40 per cent (Government Communication& Information System 2002) to as high as 60 per cent (Departmentof Provincial & Local Government, 2001) of the population.Based on a poverty datum line of R800 per month for a household,52 per cent of households lived in poverty in 1996 (Health SystemsTrust, 2003). It would thus be safe to conclude that at least half thepopulation, or 22.4 million people in 2001, could not afford comprehensiveformal health care.Research shows that in 1999 about 20 per cent of the population