Programme Director, Reverend Sidwell Mokgothu
Managing Director of FoodBank South Africa, Mr Jeroen Leijster
General Manager Pick ‘n Pay, Mr Warren Pulke
Representative of civil society, Mr Hennie de Bruin
Leaders of business, government and civil society organisations
Distinguished guests
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen
Good evening to you all. Programme Director I am humbled and honoured to be part of this auspicious occasion. From the outset I would like to congratulate FoodBank South Africa for having come this far amidst difficult circumstances of limited financial resources. On behalf of the government of South Africa, and indeed on my own behalf, I wish you all the best in your noble cause to fight hunger and poverty in our country. Members, staff and volunteers of FoodBank South Africa, I sincerely praise your remarkable work in traversing the chasm and your community and business partners, in tackling poverty. I am profoundly grateful for your dedication to the cause of humanity.
Ladies and gentlemen, as is customary for the gala dinner speaker, I assure you that I will not bore you with a long speech on a Friday night. But I noticed the programme you sent me said that I will a deliver a keynote address. So, rather than spoil your weekend, I thought it would be more important to keep my remarks fairly brief so we can move on with the programme. But, I will beg your indulgence, and ask that you allow me to highlight some few important issues.
Ladies and gentlemen, this gathering gives us an opportunity to reflect on how best we can work together as government, business and civil society organisations to contribute to the development agenda and broader government priorities. Such reflections in our view, will allow us to chart a way forward which will ultimately leave a lasting dent on poverty and underdevelopment.
As a department, our ultimate long term goal remains the eradication of poverty through giving the world a more human face (to borrow from the title of the Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane’s 2003 book). Such a human face requires that we build a more caring society. For the mark of a noble society is found not in how it protects the most powerful but how it defends the most vulnerable. In the last sixteen years this country has given us so much and it is only just that we need to give back to those less privileged, in a visible and impactful way.
Our government is committed to the agenda of social transformation that is embodied in the principle of social justice and the Bill of Rights as enshrined in our Constitution and the Freedom Charter, the two cornerstone of democracy in South Africa. The South African Bill of Rights guarantees all South Africans the constitutional protection and judicial enforcement of socio-economic rights. This includes the rights of all people in our country to dignity, equality before the law, freedom and security. The Constitution commits government to take reasonable measures, within its available resources, to ensure that all South Africans have access to adequate housing, healthcare, education, food, water and social security.
Over the last sixteen years, government has been hard at work to fulfill this Constitutional mandate. It is no exaggeration to say that the last sixteen years have been particularly notable with significant reduction in the level of severe poverty and improvement in the quality of life of ordinary millions of South Africans. In line with the provisions of Section Chapter 2 Section 27 (1b) of the Constitution, a range of social protection measures were also introduced by government to promote social inclusion and restore humanity dignity, particularly targeting the most vulnerable members of our society. These include the expansion of healthcare services, low cost housing, education, provision of basic services such as water and sanitation, electricity and the gradual expansion of the social assistance programme which to date benefit over 14 million eligible South Africans.
There is increasing research evidence that predictable cash transfers not only reduce poverty amongst direct beneficiaries and their households, and improve wealth distribution, but also generate economic growth within local communities. Let me hasten to point out that the provision of social transfers is not meant to be an end in itself, but a means to an end particularly for able-bodied citizens. It is for this reason that the foodbanking network in South Africa should actively engage their beneficiaries in developmental programmes that engender self-reliance.
Building on the demonstrated success of FoodBank South Africa in its first year of operation, our immediate plan is to roll out food banks in rural areas based on the Agri-FoodBank model. This model has been designed to provide a comprehensive solution to food insecurity, markets and jobs in rural South Africa. The Agri-FoodBank aims to create food secure producers who can participate in the local food supply chain and in the mainstream economy.
Further value will be added to the model through the inclusion of an enterprise development component for sorting, packaging and processing foods grown by farmers involved in the Agri-FoodBank hub. Of utmost importance is to ensure that those who benefit from the food banking network do not passive recipients of donated food, but are encouraged to engage in developmental programmes and use the food bank’s infrastructure as an asset for communities to store and add value to the locally produced food.
I therefore want to take this opportunity to appeal to all our partners of the Agri-food bank initiative to intensify their support for this approach, because it seeks to create employment opportunities and generate income for the participants.
Ladies and gentlemen, the threat of hunger is real in South Africa today. The escalating food prices, compounded by the recent global financial recession and massive job losses have pushed many families into poverty. It is estimated that currently fourty-eight (48%) of the South African population live below the poverty line. Sixty-five percent (65%) of female-headed households are poor. Of utmost concern to me is that 9.2% of children under five years of age are underweight and more than one in five children are stunted.
FoodBank South Africa has been set up to try and address the serious challenges of food security for poor households. Since its inception last year, FoodBank South Africa has distributed 5.6 million kilograms of food valued at R76 million to 66 000 beneficiaries per day throughout South Africa. The donated food is distributed to orphanages, shelters for abused women and children, old age homes and early childhood development centres, to name a few.
To date, five food banks have been established in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Pietermaritzburg; with fourteen community depots around the country. Together this foodbank network has generated employment opportunities for 130 people. This is a remarkable achievement by any standard. While much progress has been made and we acknowledge this progress with pride, the single most important challenge facing our country is breaking the cycle of poverty.
The internationally agreed eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) specifically seek to address many of the major development challenges that we face, including the fight against extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, improving maternal health, reducing child mortality, amongst others. Now, just five years towards the 2015 deadline, it is clear that while our country has made significant progress in human development with millions of our people being lifted out of poverty every year, South Africa continues to be a country of poverty in the midst of plenty.
The growing income and wealth inequality in this country is well documented, and I need not repeat it. Our approach to addressing the problem of poverty in South Africa has changed over the years. From the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) to the current War on Poverty campaign, our government has demonstrated its unwavering commitment to eradicate poverty in our midst. Consistent with this commitment is our conviction that government assistance through the social transfers, should give our people an opportunity to graduate out of poverty, and not “handouts” or to “entrench the culture of entitlement”, as some would like us to believe. As William James pointed out, “the prevalent fear of poverty among the educated classes is the worst moral disease from which our civilisation suffers”.
Ladies and gentlemen, we need to renew our collective efforts to end poverty, and there is no doubt that the involvement of all sectors of our society and collective action will be critical to this. As President Zuma stated recently, the MDGs provide us with an overarching vision to work together towards a common end and to measure results of our joint efforts to promote justice and life improvement opportunities for millions of our children, women and men. The Department of Social Development in collaboration with civil society such as the FoodBank South Africa and other partners to chart progress towards the MDGs.
I am very pleased to see a large turnout of business representatives at this gathering. I call on the members of the business community here present to use your influence, and all the resources at your disposal, to inspire and encourage other business entities to support the work of FoodBank South Africa. The work of this organisation provides us with an opportunity to practically contribute to our country’s commitment to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals.
I hope that all of us gathered here this evening, in spite of our religious, political or social affiliations, will make a donation or a pledge towards this noble project. Our immediate action is to expand the foodbank network to all corners of our country, with particular focus on rural areas as part of the War on Poverty campaign. This is part of our contribution to the comprehensive rural development programme.
Our government is committed to work together with all sectors of society to make a big impact in creating decent jobs, fighting crime, eradicating poverty and hunger, and improving the livelihood for our people. It is in this regard that I stand here as the keynote speaker and appeal to you all, the businessmen and civil society organisations and all those interested in partnering with us in this noble cause to contribute generously to this programme.
I thank you all.
