Z Skweyiya: Anti-poverty Conference during Social Development
Month

16 October 2007

Chair of the board of the National Development Agency, Bishop
Mpumlwana
Your Excellencies representatives from the Diplomatic Corps
Chief Executive Officer of the South African Human Rights Commission, Advocate
Tseliso Thipanyane
Municipal Councillors
Representatives from our Civil Society and communities
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen:

The theme under which we convene this landmark conference –"Attacking
poverty from the Grassroots" - reminds me of the words of former President
Nelson Mandela who described poverty as man made, highlighting the fact that
only actions undertaken collectively by human beings could assist with
addressing it. In his view; "Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It
is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the
right to dignity and a decent life."

These words, the words of former President Mandela, serve to inspire us in
all the work we undertake at the Department of Social Development. Our work is
essentially directed at confronting head-on the challenges of poverty and
underdevelopment, and is also inspired by the Reconstruction and Development
Programme (RDP). Poverty, said the RDP, is the single greatest burden of South
Africa's people. Attacking poverty and deprivation is therefore the first
priority of this democratic government. This objective should be realised
through a process of empowerment, which gives the poor control over their lives
and increases their ability to mobilise sufficient development resources.

Attacking poverty and thus bridging the gap between South Africa's 'two
nations' have been at the centre of all government's policies and programmes
since 1994.

The Department of Social Development has, in the past emphasised a welfare
approach, so as to provide a solid foundation for our developmental state. In
pursuing these developmental objectives of our state project, we will continue
to seek means that best empower our people to extract themselves of poverty. To
effectively achieve this we must expand social nets that protect the most
vulnerable in our society whilst exploring wealth creating initiatives and
projects.

With regards to the expansion of social nets, we have increased the number
of social assistance beneficiaries from about 3,5 million in 1999 to 12 million
today. Over eight million children now have access to social assistance. More
than 2,1 million elderly people receive the old age grant and 1,4 million
people receive the disability grant.

Despite these gains, we note with concern that children remain on the
periphery of societal and social transformation. Children continue to be
hardest hit by poverty in various parts of the country. During the past year we
assessed the gaps in the comprehensive social security system. These gaps
reveal a need for an expansion of the social safety net. Going forward, we will
make every effort to register an estimated 750 000 eligible children for the
child support grant believed to be still outside the system.

We will recommend that the means test for the old age pension be removed as
soon as possible and that all people meeting the qualifying age receive the old
age pension. To ensure sustainability of our pension system, all employed South
Africans must save for retirement. The revamped pension system will be
underpinned by our African traditional systems of solidarity in the spirit of
Ubuntu and Masakhane. These proposed reforms cannot be implemented without the
support of yourselves in the academia, civil society and private sector. I
therefore take this opportunity to invite you all to provide us with your
inputs and proposals.

We are also aware that grants by themselves cannot sustain the livelihoods
of our communities. To address this, the department has released a discussion
document on Linking Beneficiaries of Social Grants to Economic
Opportunities.

This discussion document is based on the view that government cannot just
provide grants and leave families and individuals vulnerable in other
respects.
The document seeks to also explore the strengthening of targeted employment
assistance programmes, because decent and sustainable work, in our view,
remains a cornerstone towards the eradication of poverty. Jobs encourage
self-reliance and the reinstatement of self-confidence so that individuals
reach their full potential. To secure these jobs we have consistently
emphasised human development as central to wealth creation and sustainable
livelihood.

In pursuance of human development we have also paid attention to the
promotion of public health and education. Such interventions require a detailed
knowledge of social and economic reality and the ability to anticipate the
appropriate policy responses. Since the bulk of this knowledge comes from the
current social science research, my involvement with the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Management of Social
Transformations (MOST) programme has added impetus to the building of solid
bridges between social science communities and the policymakers in their
countries.

Our involvement in MOST has demonstrated to us the value and relevance of
bringing in 'research evidence' in policy making and implementation. We have
established a programme to drive this effort in the department.

We have also taken steps to share the advantages of this evidence-based
social policy in the Southern Africa region. A draft Southern African
Development Community (SADC) Regional Social Policy endorsed by 11 Ministers of
Social Development was tabled at the Labour and Social Affairs Commission of
the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa in April. As part of our efforts to
improve the quality and rigour of research and policy development we have
established partnerships and collaborations with the universities both at home
and abroad, including: KwaZulu-Natal, Fort Hare, Venda, Pretoria, Stellenbosch
and Oxford.

We have also participated in the Social Development Working Group of the
India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) trilateral, because we believe that
South-South collaboration is an important instrument towards maintaining
international solidarity which is a critical engagement in our global efforts
to make poverty history. That working group concluded its Seminar this Sunday
and agreed to develop an Integrated Poverty Eradication Strategy in the three
countries.

This strategy will complement the 21 identified Government Priorities, which
for our sector includes the eradication of absolute poverty, early childhood
development, and social crime prevention. The impact and profile of the
interventions in the identified service delivery areas is to be achieved
primarily through the strengthening on the ground service delivery operations
and the numeric escalation of service delivery.

All these priorities are directed at addressing absolute poverty and social
exclusion through a combination of policies set and implemented at different
levels of government. Collectively, these aim to reduce the risk of poverty by
increasing economic opportunities, increasing the capacity of individuals,
removing barriers to participation, integrating and targeting efforts to
address the needs of the most vulnerable while providing adequate financial
systems of social protection and safeguards.

The overall and guiding objective of the anti-poverty strategy is to sharpen
South Africa's understanding of poverty in its many manifestations and to
analyse and improve government's programmatic approaches aimed at eradicating
poverty. The strategy will look at the challenge of multi-dimensional poverty
and how government departments have responded to this challenge through
policies and programmes. The anti-poverty framework and strategy would have a
number of objectives; it would:
* provide clarity on national definitions and measures of poverty
* present a diagnostic of poverty in South Africa and provide scenarios for its
eradication
* document comprehensively SA's policies and programmes and their
effectiveness
* highlight relevant institutional issues.

The primary purpose for constructing a national anti-poverty strategy and
framework is for South Africa to have a succinct national anti-poverty plan and
a relatively detailed anti-poverty framework and ultimately an integrated
anti-poverty and social cohesion programme for South Africa.

The National Development Agency (NDA) has a critical role to play in us
finalising the task of a national Anti-Poverty Strategy. I have been, so far
pleased by the efforts undertaken by the NDA towards that objective and the
broader objectives of strengthening civil society and poverty eradication.

Join me in congratulating the NDA and its outgoing board who after much
turmoil received an unqualified audit report for the 2006/07 financial.

In thanking Bishop Mpumlwana and his Board, let me also introduce the
incoming Board of the NDA, who will assume office towards the end of this
month. Cabinet chose to ensure continuity and that the Board builds on its
gains by maintaining the participation of Bishop Mpumlwana, Ms Manong and
Professor Mayekiso. Cabinet also paid attention to the involvement of all the
provinces of the country in the NDA with an emphasis on rural development and
gender by appointing Dr Adler; Chief Ngove; Dr Mgoqi; Mr Mokobane; Mr
Pheelwane; Mr Madzivhandila; Mr Mohlabi and Ms N Maphalala.

Let me welcome the old and new brooms and toast to your forthcoming
successes. We will have an opportunity to reflect on the details of your work
quite soon.

Let me, for now, alert you to the fact that it is my firm belief that the
National Development Agency ought to work closer with our provincial
departments, and other public sector and private sector development agencies
for they are key contributors to economic growth and poverty eradication. This
work ought to be undertaken through the mobilisation of community-based
organisations (CBOs), non-governmental organisations (NGOs), faith-based
organisations (FBOs) and traditional leaders as they are central in leveraging
local opportunities created by government and other role players.

Let me conclude by thanking the Human Rights Commission and the United
Nations Development Programme for their involvement in this landmark
conference. The Human Rights Commission, in particular, has been instrumental
in deepening our understanding of the intersection between poverty and human
rights, for wherever there is extreme poverty there are human rights
violations.

It is therefore our solemn duty to ensure that we come together to protect
these rights. It is also befitting that this conference occurs at the
conjuncture of three days which address issues of poverty. Yesterday was World
Rural Women's Day, today marks World Food Day and tomorrow we commemorate the
20th anniversary of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, under
the theme "People living in poverty as agents of change". Our policies
indicated here today subscribe to this view. I wish you the best in your
deliberations over the next three days. I also wish to express my hope that
your deliberations assist in deepening our policies and programmes towards a
real and realisable empowerment of our people so that we may indeed make
poverty history.

I thank you.

Enquiries:
Lakela Kaunda
Department of Social Development
Cell: 082 782 2575

Makgodu Tsehlane
National Development Agency
Cell: 083 444 4114

Issued by: Department of Social Development
16 October 2007