Address by Dr Zola Skweyiya, Minister of Social Development, at the opening of the Anti-poverty Conference, hosted by the National Development Agency (NDA) in Woodmead, Sandton.

Chair of the board of the National Development Agency, Bishop Mpumlwana
Your Excellencies representatives from the Diplomatic Corps
Chief Executive Officer of the South African Human Rights Commission, Advocate Tseliso Thipanyane
Municipal Councillors
Representatives from our Civil Society and communities
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen:

The theme under which we convene this landmark conference -"Attacking poverty from the Grassroots" - reminds me of the words of former President Nelson Mandela who described poverty as man made, highlighting the fact that only actions undertaken collectively by human beings could assist with addressing it. In his view; "Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life."

These words, the words of former President Mandela, serve to inspire us in all the work we undertake at the Department of Social Development. Our work is essentially directed at confronting head-on the challenges of poverty and underdevelopment, and is also inspired by the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). Poverty, said the RDP, is the single greatest burden of South Africa's people. Attacking poverty and deprivation is therefore the first priority of this democratic government. This objective should be realised through a process of empowerment, which gives the poor control over their lives and increases their ability to mobilise sufficient development resources.

Attacking poverty and thus bridging the gap between South Africa's 'two nations' have been at the centre of all government's policies and programmes since 1994.

The Department of Social Development has, in the past emphasised a welfare approach, so as to provide a solid foundation for our developmental state. In pursuing these developmental objectives of our state project, we will continue to seek means that best empower our people to extract themselves of poverty. To effectively achieve this we must expand social nets that protect the most vulnerable in our society whilst exploring wealth creating initiatives and projects.

With regards to the expansion of social nets, we have increased the number of social assistance beneficiaries from about 3,5 million in 1999 to 12 million today. Over eight million children now have access to social assistance. More than 2,1 million elderly people receive the old age grant and 1,4 million people receive the disability grant.

Despite these gains, we note with concern that children remain on the periphery of societal and social transformation. Children continue to be hardest hit by poverty in various parts of the country. During the past year we assessed the gaps in the comprehensive social security system. These gaps reveal a need for an expansion of the social safety net. Going forward, we will make every effort to register an estimated 750 000 eligible children for the child support grant believed to be still outside the system.

We will recommend that the means test for the old age pension be removed as soon as possible and that all people meeting the qualifying age receive the old age pension. To ensure sustainability of our pension system, all employed South Africans must save for retirement. The revamped pension system will be underpinned by our African traditional systems of solidarity in the spirit of Ubuntu and Masakhane. These proposed reforms cannot be implemented without the support of yourselves in the academia, civil society and private sector. I therefore take this opportunity to invite you all to provide us with your inputs and proposals.

We are also aware that grants by themselves cannot sustain the livelihoods of our communities. To address this, the department has released a discussion document on Linking Beneficiaries of Social Grants to Economic Opportunities.

This discussion document is based on the view that government cannot just provide grants and leave families and individuals vulnerable in other respects.
The document seeks to also explore the strengthening of targeted employment assistance programmes, because decent and sustainable work, in our view, remains a cornerstone towards the eradication of poverty. Jobs encourage self-reliance and the reinstatement of self-confidence so that individuals reach their full potential. To secure these jobs we have consistently emphasised human development as central to wealth creation and sustainable livelihood.

In pursuance of human development we have also paid attention to the promotion of public health and education. Such interventions require a detailed knowledge of social and economic reality and the ability to anticipate the appropriate policy responses. Since the bulk of this knowledge comes from the current social science research, my involvement with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Management of Social Transformations (MOST) programme has added impetus to the building of solid bridges between social science communities and the policymakers in their countries.

Our involvement in MOST has demonstrated to us the value and relevance of bringing in 'research evidence' in policy making and implementation. We have established a programme to drive this effort in the department.

We have also taken steps to share the advantages of this evidence-based social policy in the Southern Africa region. A draft Southern African Development Community (SADC) Regional Social Policy endorsed by 11 Ministers of Social Development was tabled at the Labour and Social Affairs Commission of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa in April. As part of our efforts to improve the quality and rigour of research and policy development we have established partnerships and collaborations with the universities both at home and abroad, including: KwaZulu-Natal, Fort Hare, Venda, Pretoria, Stellenbosch and Oxford.

We have also participated in the Social Development Working Group of the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) trilateral, because we believe that South-South collaboration is an important instrument towards maintaining international solidarity which is a critical engagement in our global efforts to make poverty history. That working group concluded its Seminar this Sunday and agreed to develop an Integrated Poverty Eradication Strategy in the three countries.

This strategy will complement the 21 identified Government Priorities, which for our sector includes the eradication of absolute poverty, early childhood development, and social crime prevention. The impact and profile of the interventions in the identified service delivery areas is to be achieved primarily through the strengthening on the ground service delivery operations and the numeric escalation of service delivery.

All these priorities are directed at addressing absolute poverty and social exclusion through a combination of policies set and implemented at different levels of government. Collectively, these aim to reduce the risk of poverty by increasing economic opportunities, increasing the capacity of individuals, removing barriers to participation, integrating and targeting efforts to address the needs of the most vulnerable while providing adequate financial systems of social protection and safeguards.

The overall and guiding objective of the anti-poverty strategy is to sharpen South Africa's understanding of poverty in its many manifestations and to analyse and improve government's programmatic approaches aimed at eradicating poverty. The strategy will look at the challenge of multi-dimensional poverty and how government departments have responded to this challenge through policies and programmes. The anti-poverty framework and strategy would have a number of objectives; it would:
* provide clarity on national definitions and measures of poverty
* present a diagnostic of poverty in South Africa and provide scenarios for its eradication
* document comprehensively SA's policies and programmes and their effectiveness
* highlight relevant institutional issues.

The primary purpose for constructing a national anti-poverty strategy and framework is for South Africa to have a succinct national anti-poverty plan and a relatively detailed anti-poverty framework and ultimately an integrated anti-poverty and social cohesion programme for South Africa.

The National Development Agency (NDA) has a critical role to play in us finalising the task of a national Anti-Poverty Strategy. I have been, so far pleased by the efforts undertaken by the NDA towards that objective and the broader objectives of strengthening civil society and poverty eradication.

Join me in congratulating the NDA and its outgoing board who after much turmoil received an unqualified audit report for the 2006/07 financial.

In thanking Bishop Mpumlwana and his Board, let me also introduce the incoming Board of the NDA, who will assume office towards the end of this month. Cabinet chose to ensure continuity and that the Board builds on its gains by maintaining the participation of Bishop Mpumlwana, Ms Manong and Professor Mayekiso. Cabinet also paid attention to the involvement of all the provinces of the country in the NDA with an emphasis on rural development and gender by appointing Dr Adler; Chief Ngove; Dr Mgoqi; Mr Mokobane; Mr Pheelwane; Mr Madzivhandila; Mr Mohlabi and Ms N Maphalala.

Let me welcome the old and new brooms and toast to your forthcoming successes. We will have an opportunity to reflect on the details of your work quite soon.

Let me, for now, alert you to the fact that it is my firm belief that the National Development Agency ought to work closer with our provincial departments, and other public sector and private sector development agencies for they are key contributors to economic growth and poverty eradication. This work ought to be undertaken through the mobilisation of community-based organisations (CBOs), non-governmental organisations (NGOs), faith-based organisations (FBOs) and traditional leaders as they are central in leveraging local opportunities created by government and other role players.

Let me conclude by thanking the Human Rights Commission and the United Nations Development Programme for their involvement in this landmark conference. The Human Rights Commission, in particular, has been instrumental in deepening our understanding of the intersection between poverty and human rights, for wherever there is extreme poverty there are human rights violations.

It is therefore our solemn duty to ensure that we come together to protect these rights. It is also befitting that this conference occurs at the conjuncture of three days which address issues of poverty. Yesterday was World Rural Women's Day, today marks World Food Day and tomorrow we commemorate the 20th anniversary of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, under the theme "People living in poverty as agents of change". Our policies indicated here today subscribe to this view. I wish you the best in your deliberations over the next three days. I also wish to express my hope that your deliberations assist in deepening our policies and programmes towards a real and realisable empowerment of our people so that we may indeed make poverty history.

I thank you.

Enquiries:
Lakela Kaunda
Department of Social Development
Cell: 082 782 2575

Makgodu Tsehlane
National Development Agency
Cell: 083 444 4114

Issued by: Department of Social Development
16 October 2007