Plettenberg Bay - Unless serious interventions are taken to address poverty at household level, government may struggle to address the plight of poor South Africans for years to come, warned Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe.
Speaking during his two-day visit to Plettenberg Bay on Saturday, Motlanthe, who heads government's anti-poverty campaigns, described the country's poverty levels as tragic, adding that serious steps needed to be taken to address the problem.
"It is now time to identify the agents of change within these families and empower them with long term development skills so that we do not have a situation where poverty is transferred from one generation to another.
"It's a matter that requires all hands on deck...all spheres of government have an urgent matter here and only coordination and new approaches will help us fight this poverty among our people," he said.
The focus of the campaign has been to assist households with long term solutions to the poverty challenge. "We are here to help the people identify the opportunities in which they can address this scourge of poverty," Motlanthe said.
His visit to Bitou Municipality, accompanied by several cabinet ministers and Western Cape Premier Helen Zille, was part of the ongoing War on Poverty campaign. South Africa launched the ambitious nationwide campaign more than four years ago in an effort to reduce poverty among the country's poorest citizens.
It is in line with the country's plans to halve poverty and unemployment by 2014. The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform has also allocated billions of rands on anti-poverty projects at some of the country's poverty stricken areas.
As in previous campaigns across the country, the townships of Kwanokuthula and New Horizon in Plettenberg Bay were identified as poverty hot spots with a number of families in the area requiring urgent intervention to address their plight.
While the small coastal town is known for its beauty and famous tourist attraction sites, tourism only comes third in terms of contribution to the local economy. Also the recent global economic downturn has meant that several enterprises had to close shop, including three major local hardware stores and four restaurants, leaving scores of people without jobs.
It also emerged during Motlanthe's door to door visits to the identified families, that most households were headed by single women who were either unemployed or unfit to work. "I am struck by what I have seen here, it's a very tragic situation," Motlanthe said after meeting several families.
In one instance, a 48-year-old-unemployed women who looks after her three grandchildren, one of them HIV positive, pleaded for help as she battled to raise the youngsters in a back-room she has been renting for over nine years.
Emily Jack's only income is the R260 social grants she receives for each of her three grandchildren. Jack's daughter died of Aids two years ago and was left to care for a six-year-old granddaughter who requires treatment and good nutrition to keep her going. "It's not easy, not having a proper house to raise these children has been just one of the daily struggles I have to confront and to add to the problem, my own health is deteriorating daily and all I'm asking for is some kind of assistance for the children even if it's in the form of food vouchers," said Jack who was fighting back tears.
The situation is not any better for her next door neighbours, Juda Mfengu, 48, and Usher Gugushe, 38, two brothers who have been living in a dilapidated RDP house for years. They are both unemployed and with four children each, they struggle to make ends meet.
Mfengu pleaded to Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale to attend to a request for a new home. "All I'm asking for is a better house for my children and maybe the rest will come together after that, I just want a proper house," Mfengu said.
Both Motlanthe and Sexwale promised that people like Jack and Mfengu will receive the attention of authorities.
"That is exactly the purpose of these visits to see exactly where the problem is and what the cause is and how it can be addressed," added Motlanthe. He vowed that the most deprived households identified in the poorest wards in the area would be visited periodically by a team of professionals and community workers to identify their specific needs, accelerate their access to government services, and provide safety nets. "So you haven't seen the last of us here, we will be back in a year or so."
Western Cape Premier Helen Zille's agreed that greater cooperation from all spheres of government needed to be intensified to address the poverty challenge not only in the Western Cape but the country as a whole. "We must declare war on poverty and we must keep up the fight until we emerge victorious. All the spheres of government must work together to alleviate poverty and reduce the impoverishment of our people," Zille said.
She said many democracies in the world started with worse poverty levels than that of South Africa and the countries were able to beat hunger and deprivation.
