“Breaking the Cycle of Intergenerational Transmitted Poverty: From Rhetoric to Practice”
Programme director
CEO of the Independent Development Trust (IDT), Ms Thembi Nwedanutswu
Board of Directors of the IDT
Representatives from civil society,
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
It is a great honour to be part of this important dialogue that focuses on a prominent challenge of our times, which is poverty. We meet here to engage on the issue of poverty and its impact on the livelihoods of our people, from generation to generation. We thank the IDT for bringing this dialogue to Nkandla, which is one among many villages in our country where poverty continues to ravage our people.
The theme of this IDT Development Week dialogue, which is “Breaking the Cycle of Intergenerational Transmitted Poverty: From Rhetoric to Practice”, remains relevant in helping us put a stop to intergenerational poverty.
It is our view that in our response to poverty, we need to understand and acknowledge that it is deep rooted in our society. The system that we inherited in 1994 was characterised by denial to basic services, infrastructure, assets, education as well as geographic segregation that isolated the poor from economic opportunities.
Today, we find ourselves in a society characterised by economic and income inequalities, which continue to manifest in a wide gap between the rich and the poor. The socio-economic mobility of the poor, particularly their ability to move up from the lower classes to the middle or even upper classes, remain just a dream to the millions impoverished South Africans.
The low income families as well as child-headed households find themselves in appalling conditions which pose a threat for the children in such families to realise their full potential.
In these instances, unlike in affluent households, breadwinners are unable to invest money for the education of their children. At the same time, children who attend the so-called model C schools have become targets for drug lords, who want to lead our children astray and defocus them from their studies.
Obviously, this has the potential to affect the performance of children who may participate in such unfortunate activities. All of us have a responsibility to expose these criminal acts wherever they surface, because they have a negative impact on the future of our children and the youth.
At the same time, as government we have a responsibility, which we have gladly accepted, to improve the quality of education in public schools, so that children in these facilities can receive the same education as their counterparts in affluent schools.
This also means that the doors of learning must be expanded for all, as is the case with the expansion of the no-fee schools in our country.
Programme director,
I have placed more emphasis on the relationship between children and poverty because I believe that reducing poverty among children and the youth can contribute towards the reduction of intergenerational transmitted poverty.
In this regard, we believe that education can play an important role in the long-term towards the fights against intergenerational poverty.
It is for this reason that government developed a strategy to increase the number of the youth in education, employment and training by 2014/15. This is because young people are viewed as our valued human resources, who must be assisted to find the necessary space of participation in the economy and the labour market. Of course, this must be done with speed especially because almost 70 percent of South Africans are young people, most of whom are unemployed.
We therefore must show confidence and invest in them because they constitute the future of our country. As part of showing confidence in them, we must highlight that the ability of children cannot determined by their family backgrounds. We must send a clear message to the children and the youth, regardless of race, gender or geographic location, that our country presents equal opportunities to all of them.
As our most valuable human capital, the young people of today have a responsibility to come forth and work hard towards their own development for them to become better citizens in the future. They must know that poverty is not a life sentence but a condition that can be changed through hard work, and in their case, through education.
Parents in our households, teachers in schools, church leaders and everybody must encourage the youth to stick on the right path of life, particularly education, as an important tool to rid themselves from poverty. Parents must be at the forefront of guiding their children to allow them to tap into the mechanisms that government has put in place to assist children never to inherit poverty.
Among others, children must be encouraged to remain in schools and those who have dropped out be persuaded to go back to school. We must never allow space in the minds of our children for misleading thoughts such as a myth that it is impossible for impoverished children to further their studies beyond grade 12.
Teachers in schools must assist in creating awareness about the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) and ensure that children get proper career guidance regardless of their family background.
Government in collaboration with civil society and research institutions has been able to identify the problems that have led to the deepening of poverty in society. Equally, various forms of programmes and campaigns have been introduced in response to the very question of poverty. Nevertheless, all these efforts will not yield the desired outcomes if people who live in poverty do not play their part in line with the initiatives we have put in place.
As government, we are now guided by a clear mandate of the ruling party, the African National Congress, which reached clear resolutions on social transformation on its 52nd national conference in Polokwane.
Among other things, this national conference of the ruling party resolved to:
* Define clearly the poverty matrix of our country
* Develop a proper database of households living in poverty
* Identify and implement specific interventions relevant to these households
* Monitor progress in these households as programmes take effect in graduating them out of poverty
* In this context, address all indigence, especially the high numbers of women so affected
* Co-ordinate and align anti-poverty programmes to maximise impact and avoid wastage and duplication
* Accelerate training of social workers at professional and ancillary levels to ensure that identified households are properly monitored and supported and to
* Promote the intensification of the joint effort of all South Africans to promote social cohesion and human solidarity.
All these resolutions constitute a key response of our government’s response poverty.
Government has already translated these resolutions into clear initiatives that are showing results in our fight against poverty and underdevelopment. As we know, the War on Poverty Campaign has already taken off across the country.
Through this initiative, government is targeting poorest households in a bid to assist each of them overcome the hardships of poverty.
In other words, government workers and volunteers are conducting visits to these households to check which government services members of those households are eligible for. In this context, they also check whether such individuals do receive the services they are eligible for. In consequence, implementing government departments will follow with particular responses to address the plight of each households based on the needs thereof.
We are aware that women and children are mostly affected by poverty. The relationship between poverty and the abuse of women and children is also of major concern. There are still women in different households and communities who are afraid to speak out against abuse due to income poverty.
We must ensure that as part of fighting poverty, we intensify campaigns against women and child abuse. At the same time, there must be an increased participation of women in the economy and the labour market, including skills development initiatives and business opportunities.
The plight of rural women cannot go unnoticed. They too must not be isolated from the opportunities that women in urban areas have. Of course the dynamics differ from location to location, but we must find a way to exploit the talents of rural women especially in manufacturing and agriculture to help them participate in the economy. This will also help in ensuring food production, which will be helpful for poor households especially in the light of high food prices.
We have announced that the Social Protection and Community Development cluster of government will continue with the implementation of the Household Food Production programme to minimise the impact of rising food prices to the rural poor. This programme has already benefitted 30 024 households through the establishment of about 60 vegi-tunnels were established in three learning sites in the Eastern Cape, Limpopo and North West province.
We would want to see many poor communities such as Nkandla benefiting from this programme.
Once more, we want to encourage young mothers to pursue their education so that they do not forever rely on social grants to raise their children. On our part, we are delighted that the child support grant has been extended to children between the ages of 15 and 16.
We still call for parents to use the grants for the benefit of their children. Most importantly, they must guide their children accordingly and encourage them to go to school. This is the spirit we must adopt as a nation if we are to fight intergenerational poverty.
In conclusion, as government we appreciate and acknowledge the role played by various non-governmental institutions, including development institutions such as the IDT, in their relentless efforts to help find solutions of dealing with the complexities of poverty in our country.
Importantly, we welcome the space for debate on this matter because engagements from various perspectives will help us respond comprehensively to the challenge of poverty.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Social Development
17 March 2010
