Poverty line announcement held back

from I Africa

The announcement of an official poverty line is being held back to allow for more consultation, Stats SA said on Wednesday.

A poverty line is the minimum income needed for an adequate standard of living.

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said in his budget speech on 20 February that Stats SA would introduce an official line "in three weeks time".

However, Stats SA spokesperson Trevor Oosterwyk said on Wednesday that his organisation was still consulting bodies including Nedlac, business and NGOs.

He said Stats SA was seeking broad agreement on the methodology on which the line was to be based, because this would mean less disagreement on what the actual figure should be.

"At the end of this process we will release the numbers and the methodology," he said.

Asked when that would be, he said: "At the moment we have no date."

Earlier on Wednesday, the Black Sash called on Manuel to hold back on the announcement to allow full consultation.

It said it was backed in the call by other members of the community and labour constituency at the National Economic, Development and Labour Council (Nedlac).

"Deciding whether to institute a poverty line and, if so, determining how, where and by whom that line should be drawn, is an issue of significant national interest and importance, and will have far-reaching consequences for all who live in our country," it said in a statement.

"Any poverty line will directly influence all anti-poverty policies and programmes by defining who is poor and who isn't."

Poverty lines were also often used to establish minimum wages.

The Sash said the process followed to date had excluded the meaningful social dialogue required by the Nedlac Act.

The Act laid down that Nedlac should "consider all significant changes to social and economic policy before it is implemented or introduced in Parliament".

Sash national director Marcella Naidoo told Sapa that community and labour members last week "left" a Nedlac meeting which was to hear a Stats SA presentation on the line.

The decision to leave was part of their call on government not to announce the line until Nedlac's poverty task team had completed its work on the measure.