Empowering Women Vital to War On Poverty

from All Africa

BuaNews (Tshwane)

By Michael Appel
Pretoria

Appointing herself as a ceremonial "commander in chief" in the fight against poverty, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka stressed that if we don't empower women then poverty would persist.

"If you don't empower women you will never address the issue of poverty in South Africa, so we need to focus on how we are going to address the feminisation of poverty in this country," said the deputy president.

Ms Mlambo Ngcuka was addressing various heads of government, business and labour at the release of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (Asgi-SA) annual report 2007, Thursday.

Asgi-SA aims to halve unemployment from 28 percent in 2004 to 14 percent or lower by 2014, halve the poverty rate between 2004 and 2014, and achieve an economic growth rate of at least 6 percent from 2010-2014.

The national initiative, through a number of projects, is targeting various areas identified as constraints to accelerated and shared growth in the economy.

Some of the key constraints include the capacity of the national infrastructure system; a shortage of skills in key sectors; poor international competitiveness of manufacturing and tradable services; the relative volatility of the Rand; and a regulatory environment which is not conducive to small and medium-sized business.

Also highlighted as a focus area for development is South Africa's second economy, by targeting those small scale entrepreneurs who make arts and crafts, are involved in tourism activities, and are etching out a living for themselves through informal trade.

"One of the things we need to ensure for the poor is equitable services to things such as roads, water, electricity, schools and health care.

"Asgi-SA is about sharing the benefits of economic growth with the entire country," she said.

Statistics South Africa recently released its Income and Expenditure Report (IER) which highlighted that South Africa was reducing poverty in the country but increasing inequality between rich and poor.

The deputy president urged a call to arms from all South Africans to fight poverty through going to school, getting an education and contributing to the growth of South Africa.

"In each family I want one warrior that is armed with education!

"We can do it, we know what areas they [the unemployed and uneducated] live in, we know who these people are - cause they all receive grants from government.

"These are people who are young and able bodied who are sitting at home not going to school ... these are the people we need to be targeting.

"There is approximately 7 million able bodied people in South Africa that are missing from the economy ... these are people who are 40 years of age and have never worked before.