Growing our own food - South Africa

from the Mail and Guardian

This article profiles new food co-operatives in South Africa that are being used to combat rising food prices. - Kale

by NOSIMILO NDLOVU

Salaminah Motsoagae (23) is a single mother who lives in an informal settlement in Orange Farm, Gauteng. She lives with her mother, who is a domestic worker and the only income earner in the family.

Rising food prices have put a financial strain on Motsoagae's family, leaving them with less money than before to buy food. "We are down to two meals a day," she says.

"Things are especially tough on people in my community who are HIV-positive because they must eat a nutritional meal each time they have to take their antiretrovirals (ARVs). Most of the time there just isn't enough for them to eat and they become very ill. Our government needs a wake-up call because we cannot continue to live like this."

Motsoagae and her family are among the estimated 1,7-billion people worldwide lacking basic food security as prices soar.

It was against this background that a public policy debate was organised recently ahead of the Southern African Development Community summit in Johannesburg to raise awareness on the extent of the food crisis and explore policy options for urgent action.

Speaking at the panel discussion on food security in Southern Africa, Professor Sam Moyo says: "Food security is not about the physical availability or scarcity of food at the national and household level, but also the qualitative degree and temporality of access in relation to nourishment, social resilience and vulnerability."

Moyo says domestic food production and consumption per capita have declined and led to persistent chronic food insecurity among at least 40% of the regional African population. "These are extremely poor, both as a cause and effect of food insecurity."

Jemina Mkhize, a pensioner from eMpendle, a small rural area in KwaZulu-Natal, says she believes the government should support small-scale farmers and improve rural development as one of the main solutions to the food crisis. "I have a fairly big yard and my house is not that big, so I am left with quite a lot of space to grow food to feed my family. I have spinach, potatoes, cabbages and pumpkin growing in my own backyard," she says with pride.

"I couldn't afford to take a bus to town every weekend to buy food -- the transport was getting expensive, the food was getting expensive. I could see starvation getting closer for my grandchildren, so I decided to spend my money buying seeds to plant the food myself. Now I not only feed my own family, but other people in my community who go hungry because they cannot afford the high-priced food."

Mkhize says the people in her community are working together to secure land they can use to farm food to feed the community, adding that more and more people are opening their gates to allow community members to use their land to plant vegetables.

"This poverty is contributing to more people getting sick. People are weak and falling ill easily, therefore not being able to work at a time when they need all the money they can get to feed their families. If the government wants to solve [the problems of] crime, unemployment, HIV/Aids and TB, it must look at solving the food crisis."

Beatrice Mkwaila of the National Smallholder Farmers' Association of Malawi, says the country's economy is almost entirely dependent on agriculture, which provides 85% of the population with its livelihood. She says while the estate sector is a significant contributor to the economic picture it is not the largest, "for in Malawi the largest producers are the smallest".

Smallholders constitute 90% of Malawi's farmers, but they face a range of challenges including poor infrastructure, lack of resources, lack of access to value-adding technologies, dependency on rain-fed agriculture, increasing costs of production and unreliable produce markets.

Link to full article. May expire in future.

Click here to read more.

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.

Click here to read more.

The hidden white poverty in South Africa

from the BBC

The BBC has picked up on the story of white poverty in South Africa. Attention has been drawn to the subject by the ANC president Jacob Zuma. - Kale

by Peter Biles

Karel and Annetjie du Randt moved to the Bethlehem settlement in Pretoria West five years ago after falling on hard times.

Previously, Mr du Randt had been employed, making tombstones in the town of Rustenburg.

The du Randts' home today is a tiny wooden hut on a private plot of land where about 30 whites make up the small community.

The huts have no electricity or individual toilets, but there is a spacious garden where the residents can grow and sell vegetables.

"We try to help each other", says Mr du Randt.

"We're not just sitting around and crying. Most of the guys here don't have any income, but we're just starting a new project, making small folding tables. You have to be part of the set-up here, in order to survive."

Bethlehem is not nearly as crowded or as impoverished as South Africa's teeming black townships such as Khayelitsha in Cape Town, or Diepsloot in Johannesburg.

However, Bethlehem reflects the face of South African society that is rarely seen - white poverty.

"It's a huge problem, and I don't think people realise how bad it is," says Elsabe Blignaut of the Danville Help Project which assists poor white Afrikaners.

"People are homeless. They have no jobs. They don't earn anything. We try to get them off the streets, feed and clothe them, and make life better for them".

Privileges of apartheid

In the days of apartheid, impoverished white Afrikaners were amply protected by the state.

The National Party which came to power in 1948 on a wave of Afrikaner nationalism, guaranteed Afrikaans-speaking South Africans employment, subsidised housing and state benefits.

Today, the ANC government provides a safety net of social grants and basic services for all South Africans who need them, but Afrikaners have lost the privileges they once enjoyed.

The mainly white Solidarity trade union says South Africa must accept that poverty is not only a "black" problem.

"Although poverty is less prevalent in the white communities, there is an alarming increase amongst white South Africans," concludes a Solidarity report that has been handed to ANC President Jacob Zuma.

Mr Zuma went to the Bethlehem settlement earlier this year, and promised to return.

His second visit last week, brought South Africa's presidential hopeful face-to-face with the daily problems of poor whites.

Accompanying him was Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya, who told the residents that in return for government assistance, they must make available whatever skills they can offer.

South Africa has a major shortage of skilled workers.

Link to full article. May expire in future.

Click here to read more.

Mbeki announces launch of a "war" on poverty.

from AFP via Google

After visits to poor areas last week, the president of South Africa announces a new scheme to fight poverty in the country. - Kale

PRETORIA — South Africa, the continent's economic powerhouse, will next month launch a nationwide campaign against poverty, President Thabo Mbeki said on Sunday.

"The war on poverty campaign will be launched in all the (nine) provinces during August. The most deprived wards and households have been identified and will be visited ... to identify needs," he said at a media briefing on the outcome of a cabinet meeting last week.

"A war-room on poverty has also been established," and the campaign is coordinated by the office of the vice president, he said.

More than four million South Africans live below the poverty line, according to government figures.

The government has also set a target to reduce the country's crime rate by between seven and 10 percent for the remainder of the tenure of this administration, in a related strand.

The targeted "priority" crimes are murder, rape, violent assault and robbery, he said.

South Africa has one of the world's highest crime rates with some 50 people murdered a day.

A review of the criminal justice system and tackling of crimes among children are also underway in the country, he added.

There are 3,478 children in detention, 820 of them sentenced and kept in correctional facilities, he said.

Finally, Mbeki, who leaves office next year after serving two terms, said that all the venues for hosting the 2009 Confederations Cup and the 2010 World Cup will be ready to meet the deadline set by FIFA.

Link to full article. May expire in future.

Click here to read more.

Fair trade comes to New York by way of South Africa

All Africa

Usually story's on fair trade stores only profile the store itself. This one talks of the artisans who supply the store. - Kale

Inter Press Service (Johannesburg)

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
Cape Town

Entering the Monkeybiz shop, one is confronted with hundreds of brightly coloured beaded animals, dolls, place mats and pictures. You find yourself smiling involuntarily.

"Just look at the beautiful work. How can you resist it?" asked Emma Johnson, an American tourist who visited the shop twice in one week. "I am buying a lot of dolls to take home as Christmas gifts."

Another tourist, Beatrice LaCroix from Canada, said she was impressed with the fact that Monkeybiz helped poor people: "I read about this project some time ago. When I arrived in Cape Town, I made a point of finding out where the shop was."

Monkeybiz was started in 2000 to help poor women in the townships around Cape Town, South Africa, to make a living. "The poverty in the townships is staggering," lamented Barbara Jackson, a ceramic artist who founded the non-profit organisation with fellow artists Shirley Fintz and Mathapelo Ngaka.

"As a privileged white South African I had to do something to help others so that I could sleep peacefully at night."

The women who make the beadwork for Monkeybiz mostly live in tin shacks with only basic necessities. Before they started beading, many had no other source of income. Now they earn 1,000 rand (about 131 dollars) to 3,000 rand (about 394 dollars) per month, depending on the amount of work they do.

Monkeybiz initially started with eight beaders. Ngaka took the beads to Khayelitsha, the township where she lived, and trained the first group of women. Today Monkeybiz employs 250 beaders.

In some cases up to 10 people depend on the income of a single woman. Many of the beaders are HIV positive.

In a country with an unemployment rate of 35 to 40 percent (counting those who have given up looking for a job), initiatives like Monkeybiz go a long way in putting bread on the table.

"Unfortunately there is no government appreciation of the potential the crafts industry has to create employment and generate income for this country," Jackson argued.

Monkeybiz products can be seen in shops around the country but about three-quarters of the goods are exported to a number of countries, including the U.S., Norway and Japan. The products are even sold in the New York shop of designer Donna Karan.

According to Jackson, Monkeybiz's monthly income from sales vary from 300,000 rand (39,000 dollars) to over 500,000 (65,700 dollars).

Monkeybiz supplies the thread, beads and other materials which are delivered to co-ordinators in the townships who distribute these inputs to individual beaders. "I like the idea that the women work from home. They do not have to spend money on transportation costs," Jackson indicated.

Poor households in South Africa spend an inordinate amount on transport because of the legacy of apartheid town planning and the lack of cheap and efficient public transport.

When asked about the principles of fair trade, Jackson answered: "We do not work as a fair trade organisation, but I guess we apply the same principles."

These translate into a fair price for each piece of work delivered. Each object carries the creator's name. The women are also trained in the craft of beading and recently Monkeybiz extended its range to include objects made from recycled rubber.

"To survive as a business we have to sell the items at higher prices than we pay for them, and the buyers then up the prices further so that they in turn can make a profit. This is how business works. However, the money we earn is used to provide the beaders with all the materials they need and to offer them other services, like a wellness clinic," Jackson explained.

The weekly wellness clinic for HIV positive women and their children is run at the Monkeybiz shop in Cape Town. The women are given advice on how to live with HIV/AIDS and get a chance to interact with others who have an illness that still often leads to stigmatisation by family and community members. The women also receive food parcels.

"We realise how important balanced meals are to those living with HIV/AIDS," said Jackson.

Linah Speelman (46) from the township Macassar near Cape Town has been beading for Monkeybiz since 2001.

"It has changed my life," she told IPS. "I used to work as a domestic worker but it was very stressful. The money I earned was far less than what I get as a beader. I can work at my own pace and do as much or as little work as I want to. I don't have to struggle with public transport to get to my place of work at a certain time."

Through Monkeybiz, Eunice Mlotywa from the township Khayelitsha was able to help other people: "Compared to some of my neighbours, I had a good life. When some of them started asking me for food, I realised that I had to try and teach them some skills. I started teaching them beadwork, but I did not have a market for the products."

When she met Jackson in 2001, a mutually beneficial partnership was entered into and she started working as a co-ordinator for Monkeybiz. "I realised that I could help more people who would be ensured of a regular income because of the strong marketing strategy of Monkeybiz."

Her house soon became too busy for her and her family to live there.

"There were people everywhere. We had to move because there wasn't space for us. The beaders bring their children and work mostly from here in summer. But in the winter most prefer to work from home. Many of them only come here on market days when I do quality control and when they get paid."

New beaders are also trained at the centre from which Mlotywa runs a weekly soup kitchen. "Through Monkeybiz I have been able to send my two sons to university. I have also seen how women who have had no income become independent through beading.

"A year ago it was clear one of our beaders, Mankozi, who is caring for the two orphans her brother left behind when he died of AIDS, was also ill. Through Monkeybiz she has had access to medical help and good nutrition.

"She has put on weight and you will not recognize this woman as the same one who was so terribly thin and sickly a year ago," said Mlotywa.

Click here to read more.

A follow up on Zuma's meeting with white South African's

from AFP via Google

You might remember yesterday's post that previewed Zuma's meet. Now we have details what happened on the visit. - Kale

PRETORIA — Jacob Zuma, leader of South Africa's ruling ANC party, promised Thursday to break the silence on white poverty as he met Afrikaans residents of a township living without running water or electrity.

Zuma, favourite to become only the third black president of South Africa at elections next year, said he had been shocked and embarrassed by the plight of the residents of Bethlehem, situated on the outskirts of the capital Pretoria.

"I am shocked and surprised by what I have seen here," said Zuma.

"The vast number of black poverty does not mean that we must ignore white poverty which is increasingly becoming an embarrassment to talk about."

Although the level of unemployment among the country's more than four million whites is only around a fifth of the overall jobless rate, research says the numbers of them living in poverty are growing.

The trade union Solidarity, whose membership is mainly Afrikaans, handed Zuma a report which claimed that unemployment among whites was increasing by nearly double that of the national average.

The visit by Zuma to Bethlehem -- his second this year -- is seen as highly symbolic given resentment among sectors of the white community that President Thabo Mbeki's government has done little to address their plight.

As well as residents of the trailer homes in Bethlehem, other whites living nearby came to tell Zuma about their daily struggle at a time of rising food and fuel prices.

"Most of us feel like outcasts and we cause embarrassment to our fellow whites," said Maritjie Vos who lives with her two adult children and four other families in a three-bedroom house.

"Zuma has been the first leader to come down here to listen to our problems."

Bethlehem resident Nico Vosloo, who looks older than his 43 years, said the Afrikaans community often felt they had no one to turn to.

"Zuma must push for a law to allow destitute people like us to access basic income grant," said Vosloo.

"We cannot wait until we are 65 years to access the old age grant. I have never worked for the past 17 years. How am I supposed to survive?"

Solidarity general secretary Flip Buys welcomed Zuma's visit as an acknowledgement that poverty did not only affect the majority black population.

"For a long time whites have been seen as rich and blacks poor. Talking about white poverty has been seen as politically incorrect," said Buys.

"The emergence of this scourge has left everyone looking for answers."

Link to full article. May expire in future.

Click here to read more.

Zuma will meet poor whites again

from the Times

Proof that poverty knows no race or ethnicity. A story on poor whites in South Africa. - Kale

Hundreds of poor whites from the Bethlehem informal settlement in Pretoria West would again meet African National Congress president Jacob Zuma tomorrow, trade union Solidarity said.

In a statement, the union said community leaders from at least 40 informal settlements in Pretoria would gather under the auspices of Solidarity Helping Hand to discuss their problems with Zuma.

"Zuma returns to the white informal settlement Bethlehem tomorrow after promising earlier this year to tackle the community’s problems."

The union would also present a report on the growing problem of white poverty in Pretoria to Zuma and the executive mayor of the Tshwane Metro Council Gwen Ramokgopa.

Zuma was expected to be joined by other ministers, government officials and Ramokgopa.

The department of social development would also provide a mobile unit where poor white people could register for social grants.

It was expected that several officials from the department would provide the poor with advice regarding social services, said the union.

The residents would also exhibit products made by them in the informal settlements in an attempt to get support from the department of social development for their community projects.

All the food for the day would be prepared by people living in the informal settlements.

"The myth that white poverty in South Africa doesn’t exist took root as a result of President Thabo Mbeki’s ’Two Nations’ speech," said Solidarity’s general secretary Flip Buys.

He said, according to Mbeki, South Africa consisted of two nations - the one poor and black, the other white and rich.

"White poverty has been a silent poverty over the past decade. We believe that Mr Zuma will once and for all break the silence on white poverty by getting involved himself.

"We want Zuma to declare that poverty isn’t bound to colour," he said.

According to the Helping Hand report to be released tomorrow, only 54 percent of all white people in South Africa can afford a house of more than R200,000.

The number of white people that do not have access to housing increased from 83,000 to 131,000 or by 58 percent between 2002 and 2006.

Structures in backyards increased from 36,000 to 54,000.

The union said it expected that this figure, despite the decrease in the population figure of white people, would increase by 7,500 units annually.

Solidarity said it would also discuss with the Zuma delegation the decision by the Gauteng department of social development, in terms of which subsidies to organisations working among poor white people would be phased out.

Buys said it was "totally unacceptable" that a decision could be taken that a person was denied social support on the basis of race.

"The decision is racist. We are convinced that this decision won’t hold its ground in any court or international forum," he said.

Link to full article. May expire in future.

Click here to read more.

Nine million lifted from SA poverty

from the Dispatch

Here are more details from the government report on poverty in South Africa that was released last week. It also shows that there was a rapid increase in Tuberculosis cases. - Kale

THE income of the poorest South Africans has improved in real terms over the past 14 years, according to government’s 2008 development indicators released last week.

The publication provides “evidence-based pointers” on the impact of government programmes on the lives of South Africans and is published on an annual basis.

According to the document, income inequality has increased because the income of the richest 10% of the population has increased at a faster rate than the rest of the country.

The per capita analysis shows an improvement in the incomes of the poorest 10% – rising from R783 a month in 1993 to R1032 in 2007, in 2007 rand terms.

The percentage of people living in poverty (R462 a month or less) declined from 58% in 2000 to 48% in 2005.

Since 1996, nine million people have been lifted out of poverty and more than 12 million now receive social grants.

About 2.6 million subsidised houses have been completed or are in progress, providing shelter to some 8.8 million people.

Altogether 87.2% of households have access to water at the RDP standard or above, compared to 61% in 1994, 73% have access to sanitation (50% in 1994), and 72% have access to electricity (51% in 1994).

Link to full article. May expire in future.

Click here to read more.

Glasgow professor Ivan Turok ready to help South Africa's townships

from the Times Online, UK

Here's a story of a man escaping South Africa and returning to help. Despite going back he is worried about the safety of his family. - Kale

Charlene Sweeney

Ivan Turok was only 10 when his family left South Africa but he will never forget the relentless persecution that drove them out. His parents were involved in the struggle against apartheid and his father, who had been under house arrest, faced a long prison sentence.

“It was very frightening,” he said. “We used to get woken up in the middle of the night by police — sometimes with dogs — trying to find [political] material.”

Compelled by the intimidation that he experienced as a child, the Professor of Urban Economic Development at the University of Glasgow is now ready to make his own contribution to the country of his birth.

Professor Turok is returning to South Africa to take an 18-month secondment at the University of Cape Town, where he will help to establish a multidisciplinary centre to improve African cities. Its priority will be to tackle the appalling conditions in the notorious townships of South Africa.

Formed on the outskirts of cities during the apartheid era to segregate blacks from whites, townships are a volatile mix of overcrowding, unemployment and slum housing. They are mainly responsible for South Africa's reputation as one of the most violent countries in the world, with more than 50 people killed every day.

“The sheer pressure on space means that sewerage systems are overcome; fires spread from shack to shack and people living cheek-to-jowl become involved in power struggles. Townships are the real problem areas,” Professor Turok said.

“Under apartheid townships were not a priority so local authorities do not have a lot of expertise in upgrading them. It is not always money that is the issue in such places — it is the technical know-how.”

After more than 20 years of studying the worst-off communities in Glasgow, the academic, who has advised governments as well as the UN and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, hopes to adapt policies from his adopted home. Providing jobs and training “like in the UK” is one common solution, as is building better housing.

“The danger is that you think you have a lot of answers when you don't,” he said. “You have to have a mindset which is openness to the local situation; a willingness to learn; not going in there thinking you know the answers.”

One of the wider problems in Africa, he said, was that native governments and international aid agencies overlooked urban poverty in favour of focusing on rural deprivation.

“These cities are growing very quickly because of migration from the countryside so there is a huge challenge in keeping up without health risks. The main challenges are to do with basic survival: infrastructure, sanitation, running water, basic housing,” said the professor, who has an MSc in town planning from Cardiff University.

Other challenges include making cities sustainable by developing them close to centres of employment, schools and hospitals.

Professor Turok described his secondment to Cape Town as a personal journey. When his family left the country they lived in Kenya and Tanzania for three years before moving to Britain as refugees. They became British citizens six years later.

His parents returned after the fall of apartheid in 1992 to become MPs and his father, Ben Turok, 81, is one of the leading — and oldest — parliamentarians in South Africa.

One of his two brothers, Neil, Professor of Theoretical Physics at Cambridge, has established a science centre at Muizenberg, near Cape Town. Now, he said, it was his own turn “to put something back in”.

Link to full article. May expire in future.

Click here to read more.

Government says poverty is dropping

from the Independent On Line

A new governmental report from South Africa has some statistics on poverty in the country. - Kale

The income of the poorest South Africans has improved in real terms over the past 14 years, according to government's 2008 development indicators released on Thursday.

The publication provides "evidence-based pointers" on the impact of government programmes on the lives of South Africans and is published on an annual basis.

According to the document, income inequality has increased because the income of the richest 10 percent of the population has increased at a faster rate.

The percentage of the population earning below R462 a month (2007 rand prices) decreased from 58 percent in 2000 to 48 percent in 2005.

Since 1996, nine million people have been lifted out of poverty and more than 12 million now receive social grants.

Link to full article. May expire in future.

Click here to read more.

Anatomy of Poverty

from the Independent On Line

A little history and a little review on South Africa. Showing how expectations on lives improving after the fall of apartheid have fallen short. - Kale

Johannesburg - When they talk of their government's failure, South Africans in the tangle of shacks and narrow lanes that is Alexandra point to an unfinished modern brick and steel building near the edge of the township.

The billboard out front says the Mandela Interpretation Centre should have been completed two years ago.

Neighbors gossip that corrupt officials stole money for the centre.

Julian Baskin, director of a government project to redevelop Alexandra, says the real story is that only R4-million (US$525 000) was set aside four years ago for a museum that has since grown to include space for cultural and social activities.

Now the project is stalled as bureaucrats try to determine the real costs and how to pay for them.

The project is in many ways a metaphor for South Africa: Expectations ballooning beyond budgets, over-optimistic planning and, yes, corruption have combined to slow delivery of the "better life for all" the African National Congress promised during the campaign for South Africa's first all-race election 14 years ago.

Impatience with successive ANC governments since also has fed anger against immigrants who have crowded along with South Africans into Alexandra and other poorest of the poor neighbourhoods.

"We don't have houses, we don't have jobs, we don't have anything," said Cyril Mthembu, a 42-year-old unemployed father of three who has lived in Alexandra for 28 years.

"So, we are fighting over the little we have."

Transformation

Seven years ago, President Thabo Mbeki launched an ambitious program to transform Alexandra, a squalid square mile (2 1/2 square kilometres) just across a highway from some of the most expensive homes and shops in Johannesburg.

Originally, the budget was estimated at R1,3-billion.

Baskin thinks the final bill will be nearly triple that. The project is due to be completed in two years.

Trees have been planted, schools, clinics and police stations renovated.

Baskin said much of what's been done so far is hard to see - new sewer systems, reservoirs and other infrastructure that will make new homes possible.

Homes have been built for some 10 000 households, but Baskin acknowledged "there are huge numbers of people still living in shacks," and that two more years won't be nearly enough to address all Alexandra's issues.

Baskin and his staff of about 30 ran into problems quickly.

For instance, courts have said that until legal wrangles over land ownership are settled, they can't touch the homes of some of Alexandra's oldest residents, the inhabitants of the neighbourhood's original 6 000 houses.

Those older residents, many living in dilapidated homes, have watched shack-dwelling neighbours move to new houses and apartments - taking with them rent they once paid for backyard shacks.

Mbeki is credited with spurring growth in South Africa with free market policies, but the boom has yet to trickle down.

Unemployment is more than 20 percent, and now a downturn due in part to rising global food and fuel prices - and a dire electricity shortage resulting from poor government planning - will make it even harder to deliver.

After several years of growth of about 5 percent, the International Monetary Fund predicts growth this year for South Africa at just 3,8 percent, and cautions even that may be too optimistic.

Promises

When apartheid ended in 1994, Mbeki's African National Congress estimated it needed 3 million homes.

Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu told parliament earlier this year 2.6 million homes had been built since 1994. But with population growth, migration to the cities and other factors, the housing backlog stands at 2.1 million.

Sisulu's department has said it needs to double the rate at which it is delivering homes if it is to reach the goal of ensuring all South Africans - native and newly arrived - have adequate housing by 2024.

But the department acknowledges it lacks technical and management skills and that it has been plagued by supply shortages and poor construction.

The frustration among poor blacks has played out in attacks against foreigners, who often end up in squatter camps in Alexandra and elsewhere.

South Africa draws immigrants from war-torn Somalia, from Zimbabwe with its political and economic chaos and from Nigeria, where corruption and military rule have blocked growth.

The anger has also led to riots over the lack of electricity and running water, and complaints that the houses the government has managed to build are shoddy.

Some progress has been made - more South Africans have access to running water, electricity and toilets, for example, according to census studies.

But the gains have been slow, and Stephen Gelb, an economist at Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand, said the focus on simply improving conditions in a nation where more than half the population is poor addresses only part of the problem.

Education can give the poor a chance to improve their own lives, Gelb said.

But in South Africa, most blacks are the product of an apartheid system meant to ensure they did not gain the skills to compete with whites, with black schools underequipped and staffed with teachers who in some cases had not finished school themselves.

The post-apartheid government has not done enough to reverse that legacy, Gelb said.

"What people are looking for is not a handout, but something that points the way to the future," Gelb said.

Link to full article. May expire in future.

Click here to read more.

Less kids, more resources, says minister

from the Independent On Line

By Barry Bateman

Government's ability to respond to women's rights issues and the prevention of HIV and Aids are hampered by the critical shortage of skilled health professionals.

Deputy Minister of Social Development Dr Jean Swanson-Jacobs told guests on World Population Day on Friday that measures were being taken to combat the problem.

She said this year's World Population Day coincided with an interesting milestone.

"For the first time in history, more than half of the world's populations, 3,3-billion people, are living in urban areas," she said.

Swanson-Jacobs said that the South African Population Policy, adopted in 1998, recognised that population and development are intertwined and cannot be dealt with by a single entity.

"Education is a key factor in sustainable development and having fewer, healthier children can reduce the economic burden on poor families. It can allow parents to invest more in each child's care and schooling, helping them to break the cycle of poverty.

"Education is a means to enable the individual to gain access to knowledge, improve the quality of life and promote genuine democracy," Swanson-Jacobs said.

She said the most significant social consequences of teenage pregnancy were vulnerability to or participation in criminal activity, abortion, child neglect and abandonment, poverty, further pregnancies and interrupted or abandoned education.

"As long as South African women do not enjoy freedom to control their own bodies within supportive relationships with husbands or partners, population problems relating to fertility will remain a major national concern," she said.

United Nations Population Fund's Professor Oladele Arowolo urged the authorities to accelerate efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to eliminate extreme poverty.

Arowolo said South Africans must join forces to advance the empowerment of women and to ensure universal access to reproductive health by 2015.

"Urgent action is needed because the goal to improve maternal health is generating the least resources and lagging the furthest behind," he said.

Link to full article. May expire in future.

Click here to read more.

Poverty Leads to High TB Defaulter Rate

from All Africa

BuaNews (Tshwane)

By Gabi Khumalo
Durban

Poverty is among the main reasons for the high treatment defaulter rate among Tuberculosis (TB) patients.

Speaking to BuaNews during the South African TB Conference, currently underway in Durban, TB Free Advocacy Communication and Social Mobilisation Manager, Leko Nkabinde said due to poverty, most people were surviving on social grants they received for their illnesses.

They however deliberately neglected to take their TB treatment as required so that they could continue to receive the grant.

"Poverty levels are so high and some people do not want to be cured in order to continue receiving the grant.

"You find a person continuing to drink alcohol knowing that you can't consume it whilst on medication," said Ms Nkabinde.

She said there was a need for intensive treatment counselling for patients to understand the importance of completing their medication.

They do not take their treatment seriously and as soon as they feel better after two months, they stop taking the medication thinking that they have been cured, Ms Nkabinde told BuaNews.

TB Free is an organisation that was formed in 2004, to increase TB treatment compliance through training of Directly Observed Therapy (DOT) support in the country.

"Our goal is to ensure that every man, woman and child knows that TB can be cured and knows where to go for help."

The organisation, which operates in nine provinces, works with the Department of Health to train people from clinics.

After training, the trainees are sent back to the clinics and are then deployed to the communities to provide DOT support to patients.

The organisation also visits schools spreading TB messages to learners so that they become foot soldiers.

"Our aim is to increase the TB cure rate by 10 percent and the defaulter rate by 10 percent," said Ms Nkabinde.

Link to full article. May expire in future.

Click here to read more.

SA must expect Zimbabwean flood

from The Daily News, South Africa

Some 200 000 Zimbabwean refugees are likely to cross into South Africa in the next month or two if it becomes clear that Robert Mugabe will remain in power.

This is according to Braam Hanekom, of Passop (People Against Suffering, Suppression, Oppression and Poverty), which released a statement on the ramifications of Morgan Tsvangirai's withdrawal from the election.

"We fear that Zimbabweans will flood into South Africa, as never before, resulting in further frustrations among poor South Africans.

"The numbers we can expect, if the Zimbabwean people have no chance of changing their president, will result in massive bloodshed. It is the worst possible time for a drastic increase in migration into South Africa, it will be war," the statement noted.

"Anybody with the capability to walk, swim, beg, or borrow to come to South Africa will," Hanekom also said.

The Cape Times visited the area under the foreshore overpass on Monday where undocumented immigrants have been queuing for the past two weeks to be taken to the Department of Home Affairs.

Zimbabweans there said that they wanted to go home, but couldn't while Mugabe's Zanu-PF was in power.

Calos Mambosasa had spent almost six months waiting for papers from Home Affairs, and still had not received them.

He said that "all his friends" in Zimbabwe wanted to come to South Africa to escape the economic and political troubles, but he wanted to go back.

"If this ruling party's out maybe we can go home. We would like to go home," he said, as other Zimbabweans who had gathered around nodded.

"We don't really believe that Mugabe will concede a defeat," said Bruce Mashinya, another immigrant from Zimbabwe.

Mashinya queued under the overpass for a month before getting papers, which he said was a short time compared with other people.

He left his family behind in Zimbabwe when he came to South Africa in May. He said that they asked him for money so that they could move to South Africa too, but he doesn't have a job yet.

"We are hopeless. (Tsvangirai) has let us down, the only hope is on him," he said.

Then with a smile, he said "But we still love (Zimbabwe) more than South Africa."

Homeless South Africans and victims of xenophobic attacks also stay underneath the overpass, creating a volatile situation, according to a report released last week by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC).


Link to full article. May expire in future.

Click here to read more.

Q&A: Ethiopia's Urban Poor Cannot Afford To Eat

from IPS News

nterview with Abera Tola, Director of Oxfam's Horn of Africa regional office

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, a nation of 80 million people, has been the site of famine and drought throughout its tumultuous history. Arising from a myriad of causes and often shepherded along by political instability, the country's 1984-85 famine, for example, left over a million dead and served as the impetus for the fund-raising concerts of Live Aid in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Today, Ethiopia once again stands at the brink of a substantial food crisis, with the Word Food Program currently estimating that, of Ethiopia's 80 million citizens, 3.4 million will need emergency food relief from July to September. This is in addition to the 8 million currently receiving assistance. UNICEF has asserted that the country's food shortage this year is the most severe since 2003, when droughts forced 13.2 million people to seek emergency food aid.

IPS correspondent Michael Deibert sat down in Addis Ababa with Abera Tola, Director of the Horn of Africa Regional Office of Oxfam America, to hear his insights as to Ethiopia's latest food crisis.

IPS: Could you describe the current food crisis in Ethiopia?

ABERA TOLA: We have a food shortage, a drought and a famine, all of which are different things. Nationally, we have a food shortage in Ethiopia, which the drought has also exacerbated.

During the harvest time in January and February, the price of maize was only 180 birr ($1 is worth roughly ten Ethiopian birr), but now it is 500 birr. And teff ( a type of grain used to make Ethiopia's distinctive spongy injera bread),was 400 birr in February, and now it is 1000 birr. Who can afford that? This is the big question now.

If you go to Oxfam program areas, you can see that the farmers are ok, at least they have grain and they have something to eat stored away, they can have a surplus to send to the market. But the most affected in this country are really the urban poor, more than the rural poor. The urban poor have to have an income in order to buy grain, but that income is not there. In the city of Addis Ababa, around 4 million people, more than 80 percent, live on less than $1 per day. How can they afford food?

We have seen the government effort distributing maize at a lower price, around 300 birr, but we believe that more has to be done to support the poor.

IPS: How would you characterize the Ethiopian government's efforts thus far in the face of this crisis?

AT: Some actions taken, such as not allowing export of grain, might have helped. Again, you have some maize and wheat in government stores, which they are distributing. There are efforts, these efforts are really appreciated, but more has to be done. More policies have to come out related to food shortage issues. We have arable land in Ethiopia, but what is not there is investment, particularly in the areas of infrastructure. There are no roads, no electricity and investors are not willing to go and do farming. investors are not encouraged to come to Ethiopia and engage in the agricultural sector.

IPS: Hunger is obviously a recurring theme of life in Ethiopia. What do you think are the underlying, fundamental causes of that?

AT: We have to have good polices, strategies to really tackle poverty in Ethiopia. We are living in an area of cyclical drought and food shortages, every year. Last year, we at Oxfam raised $3 million, and the year before we raised the same amount of money, and we are doing that with meagre resources. If there was a government strategy that would address the root causes, we would be more than happy to collaborate with the government.

IPS: Why aren't rural farmers producing food the way they did before?

There are a lot of issues within that. They are producing, but a farmer who owns 2 or 3 hectares produces 20 quintals of teff (1 quintal is equivalent to 100 kilograms), as you can imagine the household in Ethiopia is about 6 or 7. To sustain his household the farmer needs more than half of that. What he can bring to the market is about 5 quintals.

Now, he will not bring the whole 5 quintals to the market at the same time because he has to speculate. Of course there are some social factors which push him to sell during the harvest time. He has to pay for his fertilizer, he has to send his children to school and buy uniforms and exercise books, but after that he will try and keep the rest and wait for the market. And thus the price goes up.

Link to full article. May expire in future.

Click here to read more.

Real food crisis is not about prices

from Business Day

The world’s hungriest people are the rural poor who starve even when prices are low, writes ROBERT PAARLBERG

THE price of many basic foodstuffs has surged in the past six months. High import prices, on top of high fuel prices, place an acute economic squeeze on urban consumers in developing countries that depend heavily on the world market. In Haiti, Egypt, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and Ethiopia, the urban poor have been taking to the streets.

Yet it is a mistake to see high prices as a proxy for actual hunger. Most of the world’s hungry citizens do not get their food from the world market and most who rely on the world market are not poor or vulnerable to hunger.

In south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, hunger levels are twice as high as in the developing countries of east Asia and four times as high as in Latin America. Yet these two hungry regions import very little food from the world market.

Sub-Saharan African countries take only 16% of their total grain consumption from the world market and less than 10% of total calorie consumption. So, fluctuations in international prices will have little effect in this hungry region.

Countries deep in poverty rely very little on food imports in part because they lack foreign exchange or simple purchasing power, but also because they consider the world market to be unstable and unreliable — and the current price spike illustrates why.

In poor countries, roughly 850-million people are chronically malnourished, even when world market prices are low. Most of the hungry are rural dwellers, far from grain import terminals. They can fall victim to hunger due to any number of local circumstances, including low farming productivity, illiteracy, poor health or low status linked to caste, ethnicity and gender — or all of the above.

In sub-Saharan Africa in 2005, a year when food was cheap on the international market, 23 out of 37 countries were consuming less than their nutritional requirements and one-third of all citizens were malnourished.

There are notable exceptions to this disconnect between world hunger and world markets. Countries like Eritrea, Liberia, Haiti, Burundi and Zimbabwe depend on grain imports for more than 40% of consumption and have average diets of less than 2200 calories a day, so in these countries, higher world prices will cause more actual hunger.

But in most of the developing countries that are heavily dependent on imports, diets are not so poor. In north Africa, while roughly half of all essential food items are imported, the average diet is well above 3000 calories a day, so high import prices will bring an income squeeze and perhaps even riots, but little real hunger.

The international response to the current crisis has focused on urban dwellers because they make more political noise and are within easy reach of news cameras, but the real world food crisis is mostly found in the countryside.

More than 60% of all Africans live and work in impoverished rural communities — starving for lack of any modern investments. The average African smallholder farmer is a woman who works constantly, yet earns only about $1 a day. This is because she does not plant any modern seed varieties, applies no nitrogen fertiliser to replace soil nutrients and has no irrigation (only 4% of farmland in Africa is irrigated). African farmers use hand tools because they have no access to modern machinery or electrical power. Their animals are diseased and weak because they have no access to veterinary medicine.

Link to full article. May expire in future.

Click here to read more.

Call for unified fight to end global poverty

from the Edinburgh News

SOUTH African President Thabo Mbeki today urged world leaders to end the divide between rich and poor in the "global village" at the start of the Earth Summit in Johannesburg.

More than 100 world leaders - with the notable exception of US President George W Bush - are meeting for ten days to find ways of helping millions of people out of poverty without poisoning the planet.

Mr Mbeki opened the World Summit on Sustainable Development today in the Sandton convention centre.

There was a heavy police presence outside to shield delegates from crowds of demonstrators and sprawling, crime-ridden slums.

It is hoped the Summit will lead to agreements which will help more than one billion people without access to clean water and more than two billion without proper sanitation.

It also aims to develop specific plans for expanding the poor’s access to electricity and health care, to reverse the degradation of agricultural land, protect the global environment, save fish stocks and fight Aids.

Mr Mbeki told delegates at the opening session of the World Summit on Sustainable Development today: "A global human society based on poverty for many and prosperity for a few, is unsustainable.

"The world has grown into a global village. The survival of everybody in this village demands that we develop a universal consensus to act together to ensure there is no longer any river that divides our common habitat into poor and wealthy parts."

He said the world clearly agreed that international solidarity was needed to fight poverty and inequality and called for real results from the Summit.

"The peoples of the world expect that this summit will live up to its promise of being a fitting culmination to a decade of hope," Mr Mbeki said.

At a colourful ceremony last night, Mr Mbeki said there was now a common need to end the "global apartheid".

He added: "Out of Johannesburg and out of Africa must emerge something that takes the world forward. We have no choice but to unite in action to ensure the triumph of the vision of sustainable development. Together, we will win. "

Summit Secretary-General Nitin Desai stressed the final documents must contain specific timetables and targets.

Mr Desai lamented the "implementation gap" between the commitments made at the 1992 Earth Summit and the world’s lack of action toward achieving those environmental and development goals.

Poverty and ill health continued as does global climate change and environmental degradation, he said. "We must have this sense that we have no time to lose."

President Bush’s failure to attend has led critics to further question the commitment of the world’s only superpower and biggest polluter to the green agenda first agreed at Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

"(The United States) can be a catalyst for positive action or a constraint on international co-operation," said Achim Steiner, director general of The World Conservation Union, or IUCN.

US officials have said Mr Bush is too busy to attend the summit.

Washington is leading resistance to demands from developing countries for concrete commitments to higher aid payments and more access to Western import markets, but says it is keen to promote worthy projects in partnership with private enterprise.

Head of the US delegation, Assistant Secretary of State John Turner, said he was "feeling positive" about recent progress. But he also played down the importance of the summit’s final documents, saying they were secondary to the "really historic opportunity" the summit offers to launch "results-oriented projects".

Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett said yesterday: "It’s true that the American Government is not doing as much as we would all like , but that doesn’t mean there aren’t lots of people in America who take these issues as seriously as they deserve."

Link to full article. May expire in future.

Click here to read more.

[Comment] Gap Between the Rich And Poor Too Wide

from All Africa

The Nation (Nairobi)

By Peter Kagwanja
Nairobi

The xenophobic attacks reflect the failure by the ANC government to close the gap between the "two different countries" that South Africa has become in the last 15 years.

The first country, visibly white and wealthy, signifies South Africa's dramatic successes in pulling back from racism, violence and human rights abuses of the apartheid era to political stability anchored on a liberal constitution, relatively impartial courts, faster economic growth than under apartheid and inflow of foreign investment.

African migrants with high professional skills, technology and resources to invest in businesses have settled in this "country", which has met the UN millennium Development Goals (MDGs) long before the 2015 finish line.

The second "country", manifestly black and impoverished, is characterised by economic woes, widespread poverty, unemployment, huge inequalities, violent crime, and anger.

Poor black migrants from Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Angola now under attack in Alexandra and other townships drifted into this "country", which like many African countries may never achieve MDGs at the present pace of economic growth.

As for now, the first "country" has not been engulfed in xenophobia.

But the second "country" is up in flames of hatred against foreigners, which has the potential of spreading to the first "country".

The existence of the two countries side by side signifies the failure of post-apartheid policies to roll back the Apartheid-era legacy of racial inequalities, black poverty and unemployment.

These woes have been compounded by stalled efforts to halt violent crime, job-poaching, housing allocations, poor service delivery, lax law enforcement and corruption, which have eroded public faith in formal structures to address grievances, and emboldened vigilantism and xenophobia.

For 13 years, the ANC has pursued the market-friendly Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) policy adopted in 1996 to attract direct foreign investment and make South Africa a competitive trading nation.

However, GEAR has failed to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor parts of Africa's wealthiest economy.

Along with Brazil, South Africa has become one of the most unequal societies in the world with a Gini coefficient (a number between 0 and 1 as a measure of inequality) of around 0.6.

Although the number of poor South Africans has expanded from a coverage rate of 2.5 million in 1994 to over 12.7 million in 2008, persistent inequalities remain a dangerous force.

Similarly, the ANC adopted the policy of "Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) to "deracialize" the economy and close the gap between whites and the poor blacks. But the policy has benefited only a small number of politically-connected black South Africans, producing a tiny "BEE-llionaires".

Not satisfied

Lamenting on this development, the newly elected ANC Deputy President, Kgalema Motlanthe, quipped: "Certain individuals are not satisfied with a single bout of empowerment. Instead, they are the beneficiaries of repeated bouts of re-empowerment. We see the same names mentioned over and over again in one deal after another."

As a result, roughly 45 per cent of South Africa's 47 million people, vastly black, are impoverished and unemployment stands at nearly 40 per cent.

Lack of skills rather than job opportunities is the main challenge for black South Africans.

As a 2006 research showed, the fast-growing information technology sector alone has 70,500 vacancies expected to reach 113,900 by 2009.

Mbeki's administration launched the Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) in January 2006 to accelerate skills development among black South African.

But JIPSA has been slow in equipping locals with skills to take over jobs in the first-tier economy.

Ironically, xenophobic attacks have deepened the crisis in the second tier economy, the abode of Africans.

Tourism which employs a million people has suffered cancellations of bookings in the aftermath of violence.

Mines are also either scaling down or threatening to close down because foreigners constitute a third of the labour force.

The hope of attracting an estimated half a million foreign visitors to the 2010 soccer World Cup hangs in the balance as a result of South Africa's cycles of violence crime and now reputation for intolerance.

Xenophobic terror strikes at the heart of the African Renaissance project that the ANC mooted to open up South Africa to the rest of Africa and to advance its political and economic interests on the continent.

The pervading image of apartheid South Africa was that of "a white tip of a black continent".

Geo-politically, it was a "little more than the West's lackey on the southern tip of Africa".

Upon ascending to power in 1994, the ANC leadership embarked on an aggressive policy to turn South Africa into an African country.

On the eve of transition from apartheid to democracy in December 1993, former President Nelson Mandela declared that, "South Africa cannot escape its African destiny".

Mandela genuinely believed that South Africa's "future is inextricably linked to the future of the African continent."

He even married Graça Machel, the widow of the late Mozambican President, Samora Machel.

However, not all of his countrymen shared Mr Mandela's passion for Africa and its people.

Amid the attacks and neck-lacing of Mozambican migrants, Edith Tefo, 65, bizarrely faulted Mr Mandela for marrying Graça, a Mozambican national, accusing her of giving foreigners "freedom to come to SA the way they like".

Mr Mandela's successor, Mr Mbeki, had even a stronger passion and connection with Africa, where he spent his exile years.

Mr Mbeki's 1996 famous "I am an African" speech on the occasion of the adoption of the new constitution has come to signify South Africa's official turn away from its apartheid-era white identity to an African identity and pan-African outlook.

Mr Mbeki also popularized the concept of "African Renaissance', aimed at helping the continent resolve some of its worst crises without meddling from the western world.

As the basis of African unity, 'African Renaissance' drew heavily from philosophical ideas of pan-Africanism, negritude, ubuntu and black consciousness as the basis of African unity, dignity and pride.

Moved in

As South African business and experts forcefully moved into the continent, the "South African miracle" also attracted African migrants into the country.

As of May 2008, South Africa was home to five million immigrants, an estimated three million of these from Zimbabwe.

The main charge against African migrants in South Africa such as Zimbabweans is that they "are stealing our jobs and our homes and causing all the crime "

However, the group of African migrants in South Africa is neither seamless nor blood-suckers and criminals as their attackers would suggest.

They include refugees and asylum-seekers, whose rights are protected by regional and international refugee treaties such as the 1951 Geneva Convention and the 1969 African Union Convention on Refugees, which South Africa has ratified.

Migrants to South Africa were more than refugees. "Not all immigrants are asylum seekers," says Moki Makura, a Nigerian businesswoman previously based in London and now stationed in Johannesburg.

South Africa has been an excellent base to highly qualified professionals overseas, keen to return and contribute to the continent's development.

The presence of pan-African institutions, including the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), the Pan-African Parliament

(PAP) and the African Peer Review (APRM) Secretariat has made its Gauteng province, hard hit by xenophobic terror, even more strategic.

This category of highly educated and skilled immigrants today anchors South Africa's economy.

African experts and investors also create jobs for the locals in the areas of policy research, finance, information technology and other business sectors.

"I employ 12 South Africans and that is only my contribution alone. There are many other foreign business people and graduates who came here to offer rare skills and seek investment opportunities because the climate is good," says a Zambian investor.

"The problem is not about South Africans losing jobs and economic opportunities (to other Africans), it is about sheer hatred of immigrants," Emmanuel Nyakarashi of the Johannesburg-based Refugee Ministries Centre said in a TV interview.

The Somali Association of South Africa (SASA) has recorded 471 fatalities in 11 years.

One reason cited for hate attacks on Africans is that they are responsible for spiralling crime and insecurity. Official statistics do not seem to support this claim.

Dr Kagwanja is the President of the African Policy Institute (Nairobi/Pretoria), and a director at the Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria.

Click here to read more.

KZN Pledges R21.6m Toward Childhood Development

from All Africa

BuaNews (Tshwane)

By Michael Appel
Durban

An amount of R21.6 million has been set aside by the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government for Early Childhood Development (ECD) in 2008, increasing it to R97 million in 2010 said KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sibusiso Ndebele, Sunday.

Speaking on International Children's Day, the premier highlighted the need for strong focus to fall on ECD as indicated by The Growth Report released by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel and the Commission on Growth and Development.

"On the issue of education and skills development the report found that equality of opportunity and gender inclusiveness was necessary to bring the benefits of globalisation to those not yet actively participating in the economy.

"It found that, for instance, adequate nutrition among infants and children is crucial to the equalisation of opportunity, allowing children to benefit appropriately from educational systems and to then bring this capacity to the workplace," said the premier.

During 2008, the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education is to advance training in the ECD phase for children who fall in the age category 0 to four years, and 333 ECD educators will be trained this year.

"Our government's ECD programme aims to ensure that the care of infants and children is paramount and we thus aim to equalise the subsidy at a minimum of R9 per child per day in each province.

"Nationally, we hope to subsidise 600 000 children in the current financial year. In the long-term this will provide the foundation to lift our children out of poverty," he said.

A phenomenon brought about by the increasing prevalence of HIV and AIDS among young adults is the emergence of child-headed households.

Children are taking charge of households now from as young as 12 years old, said the premier, adding this sort of situation surely required governments intervention.

"We have a duty to these children. As society changes, we, as government, have adapted our policies to change your lives for the better.

"This morning, we visited two homes which are headed by children. These are orphans. They are not even able to experience adolescence, but are plunged into adulthood with many responsibilities, including parenting.

Click here to read more.

SAfrica admits 'urgent need' to tackle poverty after mob attacks

from AFP via Google



Children make their way to school past shacks, destroyed in xenophobic violence

JOHANNESBURG — South Africa's government acknowledged an urgent need Thursday to accelerate efforts to tackle poverty and unemployment as it assessed the damage from a wave of deadly xenophobic attacks.

In a statement issued after a cabinet meeting held on Wednesday, the government said it "accepts that the pace of service delivery needs to be expedited ... to address the developmental needs of our communities.

"However, blaming and attacking foreign nationals is an unacceptable way of highlighting community concerns."

The government said there were genuine concerns about access to basic provisions such as water as well as jobs but they were being exploited to justify attacks on foreigners which have left more than 50 people dead in May.

Around 40 percent of South Africa's estimated 48 million people are unemployed, according to unofficial statistics, while more than four million are believed to be living in dire poverty and earn less than a dollar a day.

"Whilst acknowledging the urgent need to accelerate its programmes for alleviating poverty, unemployment and other forms of socio-economic deprivation, government appeals to all our communities to reject any agitation from those who wish to reduce this country into a lawless country," it added.

The acknowledgement marks a significant change in tone from South African President Thabo Mbeki's government which had previously denied any link between the attacks and complaints about the delivery of essential services.

But while the government confirmed plans to set up special courts to try those accused of carrying out the attacks, the cabinet made no concrete decision on how to assist the victims.

There had been reports prior to the meeting the government would approve the setting up of several giant camps to house some of the tens of thousands of foreigners, mainly Zimbabwean and Mozambican, who saw their homes razed to the ground in the violence which began on May 11.

However cabinet said merely it was working with officials at provincial level to find suitable land or facilities to house the victims who have either been staying in cramped community centres or sleeping out in the cold.

Meanwhile the Gauteng provincial government, which includes the Johannesburg epicentre of the attacks, said another 10 temporary shelters would be set up to held displaced foreign nationals in Gauteng.

Acting Gauteng premier Paul Mashatile said a task team led by the department of social services would be assigned to identify locations for temporary shelters.

"The task team will co-ordinate intervention, working together with the United Nations Council on refugees and other organisations," he was quoted as saying by the SAPA news agency.

The Catholic Archbishop of Johannesburg, Buti Tlhagale, also called for greater efforts to be made to help victims of the violence as he issued an appeal for clothing, blankets and food to be dropped off at churches.

Mbeki has been widely criticised for his response to the violence which has severely damaged South Africa's reputation as a "Rainbow Nation" that it has sought to forge in the 14 years since the end of the whites-only apartheid regime.

While he has called the attacks a "disgrace" he has failed to visit any of the affected areas and he did not chair Wednesday's cabinet as he is currently attending a conference in Japan.

Click here to read more.