the South African Women in Dialogue (SAWID) Conference, Pretoria
University
2 July 2007
Programme Director
First Lady Mrs Zanele Mbeki
Members of the SAWID National Steering Committee
Members of national and provincial legislatures
Women of South Africa represented by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and
community based organisations (CBOs)
Members of faith-based organisations
Members of donor organisations
Representatives of the private sector
Officials from the three spheres of government
Ladies and gentlemen
I am pleased to be addressing this important 2007 South African Women in
Dialogue Conference, with the theme "From Dialogue to Development: Women
Uniting to Eradicate Poverty." I wish to congratulate the First Lady, Mrs Mbeki
who is the patron of SAWID for her tireless efforts in ensuring the
development, equality and rights of all women and children. We are humbled at
the First Lady's steadfastness and hard work often deliberately done away from
the flashing of cameras and without the presence of the media. Getting the work
done quietly is one of her endearing qualities.
At the same time we also congratulate the national steering committee of
SAWID for the sterling work it continues to do.
Making poverty history
I would also like to applaud all the participants for attending SAWID events
especially those who have come from far away to debate and find solutions to
the challenges of eradicating poverty. As a government we are only too aware of
the fact that making poverty history is only possible if we join hands in
partnership with civil society, business and families. It is only our
commitment and hard work, as a nation, that can ensure the upliftment of women
and our under-developed communities.
Government has made tremendous strides
We know that the democratic government has made tremendous strides in
creating a better life for all since 1994. Even as we realize this, there is
still a long road ahead. The Presidency recently released a publication called,
Development Indicators Mid-term Review, which is part of Cabinet's strategy to
monitor and evaluate a set of 72 key development indicators. These indicators
serve as markers in our evolution as a society and means that we can measure
our progress in combating poverty.
In 2006:
* 71% of RSA population had proper sanitation
* 80% had electricity
* 83% had access to clean water.
Between 1994 and the middle of 2006, 23 million housing subsidies were
approved. Almost 12 million people received social grants of which over seven
million are child grants. By any account and from a socio-economic benefit
point of view these interventions touch a significant number of our citizens.
This means universal access to basic services by 2014 and attaining Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 is possible. Our own 2014 goals to half
poverty and unemployment are more ambitious than MDGs.
South African economic growth
South Africa's economy has grown and from September 1999 through to June
2005, the annual economic growth rate averaged 3,5%. In the decade prior to
1994, economic growth averaged less than one percent a year. Last year our
growth reached 4,5%. Our concern, however, is increasing the number of people
who benefit from our growing economy.
Yet extreme forms of poverty continue to exist
Statistics tell us that poverty has decreased since 2000. However, the rate
of income increase for the poor has not matched that of the better off, this
means that income inequality has not decreased. So even though our economy has
been growing, poverty is still prevalent. We are still to find growth with
sustainable redistributions mechanisms so that our impact on the poorest is
much better.
SAWID has and played a significant role in highlighting government's
shortcomings when it comes to fighting poverty and exposing us to experiences
of countries, which facing similar challenges.
As a country we need a national consensus on:
1. the definition of poverty and its causes
2. the significant interventions that must be undertaken
3. comprehensive and sustainable social security support
4. the target groups for our interventions; our interventions target the
following:
* pensioners
* young poor teen parents who must be assisted to go back to school
* granny headed household
* young, able bodied, poor and unskilled versus severely disabled person
* individual household and individuals within a family etc.
I want to argue that we put the family at the centre of poverty eradication
both as service provider and recipient. As government, NGOs, business and
researchers, let us empower the family to be the first site against poverty and
especially against inter-generational poverty. We need you as partners to do
this, to get families and ward committees as our agents of change.
The nature of poverty and second economy in South Africa
* Poverty is entrenched and systemic as it is part of the apartheid
legacy.
* It has been worsened by the Bantu Education policy, which was meant to create
cheap, black, unskilled and abundant labour. Our poverty was induced by
withholding education and skills since the discovery of gold.
* Deliberate economic exclusion, job reservation, racial capital.
* The structured non-sharing of benefits of the economy was a policy and a
desirable outcome under apartheid.
* Land dispossession.
* Apartheid spatial planning (Bantustans and Group Areas Act).
* Political repression, divide and rule.
* Domination of large companies (racist and patriarchal capitalist system with
little room for small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) and informal
economy).
* No services, energy, shelter, roads etc.
All of the above must be addressed together, as much as possible, to get the
desired impact and remedies must benefit large numbers of people.
Comprehensive anti-poverty and poverty eradication
* Anti-poverty must prevent poverty within families before it occurs so as
to progressively eradicate it.
* We need destiny changing interventions, which must stop poverty of the young
and old and reduce the number of poor people.
* Nutrition: school feeding scheme must address child hunger.
* Improve social conditions and access to basic services such as schools,
houses, roads, Information and Communication Technology (ICTs), energy,
hospital etc.
* Interventions within families to ensure families do not transfer poverty to
next generations, and fight to eliminate youth and child poverty so that young
people are not condemned to chronic poverty at an early age.
* Out of school and out of work youth often have no support and deserve special
targeting, National Youth Service (NYS) is one programme that is targeting this
group and provided programmes must have no entry barriers.
* Education is our strongest anti-poverty intervention.
* Anti-poverty and poverty eradication must include a path to guaranteed
economic inclusion such as the proposed wage subsidy for first entrants into
labour market.
* Often a gap exists between social interventions with no economic impact and
economic activities that ignore the poor and unskilled who are the majority in
favour of the skilled and to a lesser extent the semi-skilled. In a country
like Republic of South Africa (RSA) a poverty eradication strategy must
guarantee jobs to the millions poor unskilled mostly young and women. It must
not end with reference to a training opportunity only. Poverty eradication has
to be a very large part of the industrial strategy.
Poverty reduction and poverty alleviation
* In addition to anti-poverty, which must prevent poverty before it occurs,
we also need alleviation that reduces the level even without eradication and
alleviation. This will result in reducing the numbers of poor people and
therefore leading to lessening and eradication of poverty in the long
term.
* Our grants have a large impact and are accessed by a large number of needy
people.
* Through all our current interventions people are saved from absolute poverty
and are provided with food security.
* Poverty eradication, anti-poverty reduction and alleviation policy needs
dedicated strategies and separate performance indicators.
When this leads to poverty eradication, I would like to call that "Turning a
Pyramid to a Diamond" for now the poor people in general; black women, youth
and children are trapped at the bottom of the pyramid. The top of the pyramid
has the extremely rich people.
An ideal society for us is diamond shaped. With few rich people at the tip
and the majority of the people in the middle of the diamond and a few very poor
at the bottom top of the diamond that depend on the state. Our efforts in the
fighting against poverty must be about turning the pyramid to a diamond.
Poverty alleviation, reduction and elimination must go together and must reach
the targeted families and individuals while at a macro-level we must ensure we
address systematic problems that lead to recurrent poverty inducing conditions.
That needs legislation, large resources and national effort. That is addition
to education which does address systematic issues. Systemic challenges need
governments.
The anti-poverty policy under consideration must take all this into
consideration. A shared and redistribution oriented growth, partly to deal with
poverty, socio-economic inclusion as well as inequalities. The solidarity
between and amongst citizens towards economical inclusion means they must
commit class suicide. When we talk of a developmental state we are, therefore,
talking of a state that has a contract with citizens on what is important for
common good as agreed by all. That is what we need to achieve as a government
together with you as citizens as we work towards a developmental state.
What we need to engage families to deal with their own household poverty and
a plan for each family and its poor members and communities, so we know what we
need in each family from the gogo-headed, child-headed, poor young unemployed,
retrenched semi- skilled parents. Local Economic Development strategies and
Integrated Development Plans are all very important. In that regard a
holistic package must have:
* anti-poverty measures to prevent it
* poverty eradication, alleviation to cure it
* sustainable and targeted choices, to fit the targeted generally and
especially e.g. per household
* we must facilitate and achieve economic inclusion namely entry into the
labour market e.g. wage subsidy, not leaving meaningful economic inclusion to
chance has been a big mistake of many a strategies to fight poverty.
* we must locate the family into centre and provide appropriate
interventions,
* prejudice against women and girl child
* we must facilitate exit from welfare to development
* young people must be on transit in the welfare of the State
* young men out of school must be targeted
* we must address macro and systemic causes that lead to re-occurrence no
matter what programme is in place.
For a moment I would like to focus on the issue of teenage pregnancies. We
need to put effort into preventing teenage pregnancies. Secondly, for those
girls who are already pregnant, these are unprepared parents, who will be
destined to chronic poverty otherwise.
The conclusion of our comprehensive plan to prevent, stop, reverse and
reduce numbers of poor people is through collaboration with all stakeholders.
Family poverty must not to be hereditary. At the very least quality education
must be the least we do. We already provide almost 100% access to primary
education. The struggle against poverty is a big macro-economic and
micro-economic matter for all.
I thank you.
Issued by: The Presidency
2 July 2007
Source: The Presidency (http://www.thepresidency.gov.za)
