Maite Nkoana Mashabane during the Indigent Policy Framework launch, Marco Hall,
Polokwane
17 July 2007
Program director
Executive mayors
Mayors from all our municipalities
Officials from our government
Representatives from the media
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
With the advent of a democratic breakthrough in 1994 in South Africa, one of
the key priorities was to eradicate poverty and underdevelopment. The
democratic movement had a huge task of undoing the legacy of apartheid and
three hundred and fifty years of colonialism in South Africa.
The African National Congress (ANC) on the occasion of 8 January statement
declared this year as the "intensification of the struggle against poverty". It
is against this backdrop that our priorities as a department have prioritised
poverty eradication and women empowerment as part of key instruments to
transform society.
In the Report of the Human Science Research Council the commission for
Africa has this to say "Poverty means hunger, thirst, and living without decent
shelter. It means not being able to read, it means chronic sickness. Poverty
means not finding any opportunities for you or your children. It is about being
pushed around living with the constant threat of personal violence".
The State of the World Population Report of 2002, the United Nations
Population provides that income is the common way of measuring poverty, but
poverty has many dimensions. The poor are deprived of services, resources and
opportunities as well as money. Their limited resources are inefficiently
deployed. Energy, water, and food all cost more per unit consumed
paradoxically, poverty is expensive for the poor.
The illustration that displayed above indicate the magnitude proportions of
poverty in Africa and South Africa particularly in rural areas of Limpopo that
remains the greatest challenge we need to eradicate.
Today, we have gathered to launch the Indigent Policy which seeks to address
the challenges of poverty and underdevelopment. We have developed this
framework to guide municipalities in determining and defining the indigents
within the national framework parameters.
Our determination in resolving contradiction of poverty and economic growth
remains paramount. Our economic growth must continue to filter down in
resolving critical issues of poverty eradication and employment creation.
In the same vein our municipal Local Economic Development (LED) must strive
to create employment that seeks to eradicate dependency on government and
create employment for all. This will result in few indigents receiving the
grant; further most of our residents will be able to pay for services
rendered.
The policy framework attempts to indicate categories of options which
municipalities must take in selection of beneficiaries. We must at municipal
level quantify the number of indigents we have registered in our Indigent
Register.
Equally problems involving indigent debtors must be resolved to enable them
to qualify for receiving free basic services. We urge municipalities to
dedicate personnel to be responsible to this milestone achievement in order to
ensure that all indigent people are on the Indigent Register.
In conclusion, one of the modern philosophers Henriot said "Poverty
eradication is the challenge of restructuring society so that there is no
longer growing poverty and absolute numbers of impoverished decrease to minimal
exceptional cases. This calls for planning for setting priorities, for shifts
in power, for restructuring society, for radical social and economic changes.
This is basically the transformation of society through policies based on
justice."
The Indigent Policy Framework is formally launched!
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Local Government and Housing, Limpopo Provincial
Government
17 July 2007
