Beating poverty and unemployment: are we on track?
Lindile Ndlovu
In 2004 the South African government committed to halving poverty and
unemployment by 2014 under the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative
for South Africa (AsgiSA). This is a realistic challenge but it is
going take a great deal of hard work and effort on the part of the
government to achieve this goal. So where are we now, three years into
the challenge?
Last month a set of key development indicators were released by the
government in a report called the "Development Indicators Mid-Term
Review". The report provides pointers to the evolution of our society
up to the middle of this government's term, two-and-half years after
the April 2004 elections. It reveals statistics on various challenges
facing South Africa and according to the report we are on our way to
winning the war on poverty and unemployment and achieving the 2014
goal.
Poverty
The report indicates that since 2000 there has been a considerable
decrease in poverty in the country, with the poorest citizens seeing a
notable improvement in their income. Since 2002, strong overall income
growth, including the expansion of social grants, has resulted in a
rise in income of the poorest 10 and 20 percent of the population. At
present, nearly 12 million people receive social grants, and 3.2% of
gross domestic product (GDP) is spent on social grant assistance.
Possibly the most significant indication that poverty is decreasing at
a steady pace is the decline in the percentage of population living
under R3000 per annum. Since 2001 the headcount poverty rate has
decreased from 51% to 43%. This has largely been attributed to the
expansion of social grants, and more jobs created in the economy.
Using Excel’s forecast function based on the trend between 2001 and
2006, it appears that the percentage of South Africans living in
poverty will be drop to around 30% by 2014 – not quite half, but a
significant dent!
