North West on poverty challenge

5 December 2006

Poverty is a phenomenon that has challenged many governments over many
decades. The North West province as a part of South Africa, acknowledges
poverty as one of the serious challenges it faces and has to overcome, said
Premier Molewa at a two day Poverty Alleviation in Mafikeng today.

After holding pre-Indaba workshops where a number of technical issues were
examined and debated, the province is meeting in Mafikeng to develop and adopt
a comprehensive Provincial Strategy for Poverty Eradication.

The Indaba is attended by MECs, Members of Parliament and Provincial
Legislature, Local Municipal Government leaders, traditional leaders, social
partners from labour, civil society, faith-based organisations, and
community-based organisations, development partners from academic institutions,
researchers, funding agencies, business partners and the media.

Addressing the stakeholders at the Indaba, Premier Edna Molewa said one of
government and its partners’ past limitations to overcome the challenge are
that all parties tended to fight poverty in isolation from one another.

“Our various sectors were not programmed to talk to one another. As a
consequence, the majority of projects tended to be unsustainable due to factors
ranging from lack of co-ordination, un-co-ordinated market access, skills
provision and the know-how of business planning to access development
funding.”

In order to remedy this, there was a need to premise jointly, strategies on
an enhanced integrated system, she said.

Molewa added that as government they had come to a conclusion that what
should set government apart from others in the fight against poverty, should
not be best intentions but best practices.

“There is nothing new in making a declaration that you want to end poverty.
There are numerous resolutions, declarations, and mission statements, and
election manifestos calling for the eradication of poverty. Following on all
these declarations, we must now produce and implement practical, achievable
strategies that can impact on the eradication of poverty.”

During the Provincial Growth and Development Strategy (PGDS) conference at
Sun City in 2004, there was a call on government to develop a comprehensive,
multi-sectoral strategy that would propose definite implementation plans,
programmes and projects aimed at addressing poverty eradication on a
sustainable basis.

According to Premier Molewa, what informs the call for a shift in policy
intervention are facts on the ground and limitations of the current social
security grants system intended to provide relief for the poorest of the
poor.

“We must acknowledge that the socio-economic situation of some of our
citizens will warrant that government continues to provide social security
network on a continuous basis," she continued.

“We need to ensure that our policy intervention helps in the short term,
medium term and long-term with the final objective of poverty eradication. We
must enable the poor people to address their present needs but also that they
are able to exit government social security net.”

The recent analysis of the review of PGDS reveals that the province’s
economy has grown by 3.4% Gross Geographic Product (GGP) and that this growth
is much higher is some areas and lower in others. There also poverty pockets
found even in the fastest growing areas of the province.

Premier Molewa has requested the Indaba delegates to concretely address
among others, the diversion of productive people from social assistance to
development programmes, and to propose concrete programmes for
implementation.

Enquiries:
Cornelius Tanana Monama
Tel: (018) 387 3456
Cell: 082 578 4063

Russel Mamabolo
Tel: (018) 387 3103
Cell: 082 900 6610

Issued by: North West Provincial Government
5 December 2006