Poverty is everywhere
Twelve years after the demise of apartheid, poverty remains one of the main challenges facing South Africa -- although opinions vary about how widespread it is.
Poverty has increased in all the racial groups. A lot of people in each of the racial groups experience the same problems.
Absolute poverty is not as bad as it used to be under apartheid, but relative poverty between the rich and poor is increasing. This is worrying.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions links poverty to joblessness.
"Unemployment, whether you take the strict figure of 27 percent which excludes those too discouraged to look for work, or the more realistic expanded definition of 41 percent, is still far too high," Bheki Ntshalintshali, deputy general secretary of the organisation, told the South African Municipal Workers Union in the coastal city of Port Elizabeth this August.
"Too many of our families and communities suffer the misery of grinding poverty simply because there are no jobs to bring in money to put food on the table."
Social benefits, such as the 25-dollar grant that government allocates to needy children each month, are making a difference in the lives of the poor. But there are reservations on this score.
The problem is that people abuse the grant by buying alcohol with the money. Reliance on grants also kills initiative. They don't generate initiative to address poverty. It causes dependency syndrome. Read more
Poverty has increased in all the racial groups. A lot of people in each of the racial groups experience the same problems.
Absolute poverty is not as bad as it used to be under apartheid, but relative poverty between the rich and poor is increasing. This is worrying.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions links poverty to joblessness.
"Unemployment, whether you take the strict figure of 27 percent which excludes those too discouraged to look for work, or the more realistic expanded definition of 41 percent, is still far too high," Bheki Ntshalintshali, deputy general secretary of the organisation, told the South African Municipal Workers Union in the coastal city of Port Elizabeth this August.
"Too many of our families and communities suffer the misery of grinding poverty simply because there are no jobs to bring in money to put food on the table."
Social benefits, such as the 25-dollar grant that government allocates to needy children each month, are making a difference in the lives of the poor. But there are reservations on this score.
The problem is that people abuse the grant by buying alcohol with the money. Reliance on grants also kills initiative. They don't generate initiative to address poverty. It causes dependency syndrome. Read more
posted by Jopie Fourie at 5:24 AM
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