Feedback on Mbeki's Poverty Plan

from All Africa

South Africa is responding to President Mbeki's war on poverty plan. Mbeki announced the effort last weekend. The plan has it's fair share of critics. - Kale

by Amy Musgrave and Karima Brown

Johannesburg - CIVIL society and organised labour have cautiously welcomed the government's planned anti poverty campaign, saying it is scant on detail and that they were not consulted.

The campaign, announced by President Thabo Mbeki at the weekend, following the cabinet lekgotla, will be headed by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and launched next month.

Yesterday, lobby groups welcomed the campaign but said it was difficult to ascertain how it was different from existing anti poverty measures.

Mbeki told reporters that the campaign would identify deprived wards and households.

A team of professionals and community workers would identify their needs and accelerate access to government services and " provision of safety nets".

The long-term goal was that the poorest households should receive assistance and support in a co-ordinated and sustained way.

The campaign comes as the government stalled on an antipoverty strategy supposed to have been signed off by the lekgotla for public comment.

Talks around defining a poverty line (to measure poverty) have also not gone anywhere as stakeholders have failed to agree on key aspects of both the strategy and line.

The question of defining poverty and quantifying poor people remains unresolved and is the cause for the delay in defining a poverty index.

Jan Mahlangu, Congress of South African Trade Unions head of policy, said yesterday that it was difficult to understand what the campaign would entail.

"What is this programme when government doesn't have a clear measurement?

"One would have expected the lekgotla to embark on this process. Postponing issues on the poor is a problem because it shows that there is no urgency," he said.

The national economic development and labour council has still not heard from the government on when the poverty line and strategy will be made available for comment.

"On the poverty line there was internal disagreement within government.

"We had two views; one from the treasury and one from social development. The government promised to come back last month , but we are still waiting," Mahlangu said.

Glenn Farred, programme manager at the Studies on Poverty and Inequality Institute, was equally sceptical, questioning how the campaign was different from the existing interventions.

"I think they (the government) didn't get the response they wanted on the strategy. Now they won't engage in a formal process.