Date: 03/11/2010
Source: The Presidency
Title: SA: Reply to Parliamentary questions, by Kgalema Motlanthe, Deputy President of South Africa

ê13. Ms F E Khumalo (ANC) to ask the Deputy President:

To what extent has the Government developed programmes that capacitate and
empower households and communities to take themselves out of poverty?
NO3705E

REPLY

Honourable Members there are a large number of Government programmes aimed
at capacitating and empowering households and communities to take themselves
out of poverty. Our programmes relating to education are but one example.

However, as a coordinated programme on poverty, Government has developed the
War on Poverty Campaign and the Comprehensive Anti-Poverty Strategy. The
former is being scaled up to cover 1128 of the most deprived municipal wards
of the country by 2014 whilst the latter is currently undergoing
consultation in NEDLAC after receiving support from the National
Anti-Poverty Civil Society Colloquium in December 2009.

The Anti-Poverty Strategy focuses on the following nine pillars that seek to
capacitate and empower households and communities to take themselves out of
poverty with the help of government and its social partners:

* Creation of economic opportunities;

* Investment in human resources;

* Provision of income security to the most vulnerable members of society;

* Provision of social and individual asset accumulation like housing,
land, working capital and infrastructure;

* Environmental sustainability;

* Provision of social wage like subsidised electricity, water and
sanitation services;

* Provision of preventative and curative health care;

* Social inclusion; and

* Good governance.

It will be seen from the nine pillars that the Anti-Poverty Strategy uses
most of the existing government programmes as key instruments. What is
different about the Anti-Poverty Strategy is that it:

· Identifies the most deprived wards in the country using the Provincial
Indices of Multiple Deprivation which has mapped all poverty areas in each
province;

· Profiles the communities and households that live in those deprived wards;

· Collects and stores such community and households profiles into the
national database;

· Develops referrals that it sends to national and provincial departments
and social partners to address the needs of those households and
communities;

· Advises national and provincial departments to develop service delivery
plans that should be included in the municipal integrated development plans;
and

· Monitors and verifies the impact of service delivery performed by
departments on the progress and graduation of households and communities out
of poverty.

The War on Poverty Programme was piloted from 2008 to 2009 by covering a
ward in each province. Cabinet in May 2009 called for the scaling-up of the
Programme to cover a total of 1128 of the most deprived wards or a third of
all the wards in the country by 2014; with an estimated 3 million households
and an estimated 15 million people who live in extreme poverty.

I thank you.

ê14. Mr K S Mubu (DA) to ask the Deputy President:

(1) What is the Government's position on the demands by Tibetans for greater
autonomy from Chinese rule;

(2) whether the Government will support Tibet's demand in the spirit of
ubuntu; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details? NO3712E

REPLY

South Africa adopted the "One China" policy in 1998. This position was
formalised through the "Memorandum of Understanding between the Government
of South Africa and the Government of the People's Republic of China on the
Establishment of Diplomatic Relations", signed on 30 December 1998. This
position is also consistent with international law and diplomatic practice.

The "One China Policy" is an international principle that there is one China
and that Mainland China including Tibet, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan are all
part of China. This position is also recognised by the UN.

I thank you.

ê15. Dr G W Koornhof (ANC) to ask the Deputy President:

What is the Government's position with regard to the preparations for the
referendum in Sudan on 9 January 2011? NO3707E

REPLY:

We are reasonably satisfied that preparations for the referendum are
progressing well.

As the Honourable Member is aware, Sudan was mired in conflict over many
years. Through mediation efforts mainly from the African Union, the main
political parties signed a historic Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) on
the 9th of January 2005.

In terms of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the National Congress Party
and Southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement agreed to work together to
address the causes of conflict in different parts of the country. Indeed the
two parties have formed a government of national unity to govern Sudan as a
whole whilst the SPLM governs Southern Sudan.

Part of the CPA is that a referendum be held to give the people of Southern
Sudan an opportunity to decide whether or not Southern Sudan should secede.

I thank you.

ê16. Dr G W Koornhof (ANC) to ask the Deputy President:

Whether the Government remains on course in its endeavour to create a
non-racial South Africa which is premised on the principle that South Africa
belongs to all who live in it? NO3708E

REPLY

Honourable Member, we must continuously reiterate that South Africa
comprises people who originate from many parts of the world who have brought
with them values and cultures that over the intervening years have been
blended into a rich tapestry of diversity.

Perhaps our greatest challenge in this country is not merely striving to be
tolerant of this diversity, but to actively explore it, engage with it and
ultimately to understand and harness it.

In this way a central vision that defines the parameters of progressive and
critical discourse is one that says we as South Africans are one people with
one destiny.

And it is this galvanising vision that will sustain our spirit in the course
of fighting against poverty and inequality, and that will keep us as a
people focused on building a non-racial future for all.

It, therefore, remains our collective responsibility to keep championing the
vision of building a united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and
prosperous South Africa.

I thank you.