Govt Review Indicates Decrease in Household Poverty.

from All Africa

Byline: Michael Appel

Pretoria, A report released by the Presidency, has found that household income poverty has decreased.

The report, entitled "Towards a Fifteen Year Review Synthesis Report", reviews government's shortcomings and challenges as well as successes over the last 15 years and investigates the impact of government programmes in improving the lives of South Africans.

Addressing the media at the Union Buildings on Wednesday, Head of Policy Coordination and Advisory Services, Joel Netshitenzhe said: "What we have established is that income poverty has actually declined, contrary to conventional wisdom.

"When using the R322 per person [per month] poverty line, in 1995 about 53 percent of households was living below that line. In 2005, that figure has decreased to 48 percent."

Mr Netshitenzhe highlighted that when using the lower poverty line measure of R174 per person a month, the number of households in 1995 stood at 31 percent, decreasing in 2005 to 23 percent.

According to the report, there was a reduction in both absolute income poverty, which is the income of poor people, and relative income poverty which is the gap between the average income of poor people and the poverty line.

"Social grants have played a very critical role in this regard ... from 2.5 million beneficiaries in 1999 to just over 12 million in 2007, the social grants system is the largest form of government support for the poor.

"Most by far is in the form of the Child Support Grant, which reached 7.8 million beneficiaries in 2007 compared to 34 000 in 1999."

Various studies have confirmed that social grant support is well targeted and contributed considerably to poverty reduction.

Of social grants, 62 percent of the total went to the poorest 40 percent of households and 82 percent to the poorest 60 percent, indicated the report.

The Department of Public Works has programmes which are aimed at assisting with fighting poverty and assisting in income generation.

"The targets in 2004 were to create one million work opportunities by 2009 ... that target had already been met by April 2008," he said.

While the Expanded Public Works Programme does absorb a large number of unskilled labour, challenges remain in that the projects are of short duration and training is often inadequate.

"There is the challenge that these [work programmes] are of short duration and the training that is meant to take place is not taking place at the optimum level," explained Mr Netshitenzhe.

Despite the decrease in the amount of poor people in the country, Mr Netshitenzhe noted that many studies, including the Income Expenditure Survey by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) found a widening inequality gap in the country.

While many poor South Africans are lifting themselves from abject poverty, the rich in South Africa are getting richer, most likely due to access to economic opportunities.

"In terms of macro-social trends, a high level of economic growth has exposed one reality that we believe society needs to take to heart ... that a higher rate of growth does not necessarily result in a reduction in inequality."

He said in recent years, inequality especially amongst racial groups, except among Africans, had not been reduced.

Mr Netshitenzhe explained that during periods of high rates of growth it was those who were already well-off who were better positioned to take advantage of that growth.

Even if absolute conditions of people might be improving, the fact that those who are on the upper-rim are experiencing a faster rate of improvement in their conditions, it starts to create a sense of relative poverty in the lower ranks, said Mr Netshitenzhe.