Poverty in SA: Graca Machel praises ANC

from the Independent On Line

SA's former first lady Graca Machel on Monday joined President Thabo Mbeki in refuting claims that more South Africans are poorer now than they were in 1996.

Speaking at a meeting of anti-poverty NGOs, organised by the African Monitor in Cape Town, Machel said while there was room for improvement, the ANC-led government had done exceptionally well in the fight against poverty.

"The ANC liberation movement has done extremely well compared to any other liberation movement in the Southern African Development Community (SADC)," she said.

While organisations had the right to voice their concerns over the government's shortcomings when it came to poverty alleviation, it was important not to blow things out of proportion, she said.

On Friday, Mbeki railed against the SA Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) for making "the startling claim" that more South Africans are poorer now than they were in 1996.

In its report published last week, the SAIRR claimed that "using the globally accepted measure of poverty, of people living on less than one United States dollar per day, poverty has increased in SA, both in absolute numbers and proportionally.

"The proportion of South Africans living on less than $1 (about R6,74) a day doubled between 1996 and 2005."

While Machel admitted that she had not yet read the SAIRR report, she said she would dispute claims suggesting that poverty levels in SA had increased since democracy.

There was no doubt that the living conditions of the majority of South Africans had improved since 1994, said Machel.

She said Mbeki's response to such a statement was to a certain extent "understandable".

"It's hard when he is told that all the efforts the government has put in to fight poverty actually increased poverty," she said.