Speech by the MEC for Health and Social
Development Mr. Seaparo Sekoati on the Occasion of the International
Poverty Eradication Day
Date: 17 October 2006
Venue: Shongoane1, (Setateng), Lephalale Municipality.
Programme Director
Mayor of Lephalale Local Municipality: Cllr. Mogotlane
Local
Government Councilors present
District Manager and the
Department Officials
Ladies and Gentlemen
On
behalf of our government and the people of Limpopo I am honored to
welcome you all on this important occasion of calling for the
eradication of poverty. I am equally happy to welcome men, women,
youth, disabled and children gathered here today. We have also
convened here today to reaffirm that collectively we have to push
back the frontier of poverty, underdevelopment, joblessness,
starvation, hunger and all evils associated with poverty.
We
have therefore also convened here at Shongoane village to reaffirm
that the provincial as well as local government will continue to
work together in a people’s contract for a better life for all. Our
coming together here is a clear message that indeed we are committed
to work together to fight poverty, promote full employment and
decent work for all.
Our
collective vision is to address the needs of the vulnerable and
marginalized and to eradicate poverty in our country, region and our
continent. Historically non-government organizations across the
globe resolved to celebrate their commitment to the eradication of
poverty and this has been going on until December 1996 when the
United Nations resolved to declare the 17th October an International
Day for the eradication of Poverty in a Summit for Social
Development held at Copenhagen. At the same general assembly the
period 1996 to 2006 was declared an International Decade for the
Eradication of Poverty.
The
World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Gauteng in August
2002 resolved to eradicate poverty by the year 2015, a target that
has been missing in all other United Nation’s Resolutions. Countries
and representatives of the people assembled at that summit committed
themselves to build a humane, equitable and caring global society
cognisant of the need for human dignity for all.
Millennium Development
Goals, amongst others, talks of the eradication of extreme poverty
and hunger, and the development of global partnership for
development and the combating of HIV and AIDS, malaria and other
diseases.
Programme Director, the
central objective of my department is to improve the quality of life
of all people and in particular the most poor and marginalized
sections of our community. This objective should be realized through
a process of empowerment which gives the poor control over their
lives and increases their ability to mobilize sufficient development
resources. This is the basic philosophy that underlines the vision
and mission of my department.
Poverty in our country,
as a result of the duality in the economy, requires focused
interventions which should take into account both immediate goal of
poverty relief and the long-term objectives of totally eradicating
poverty.
Official national
unemployment figures indicate that since 2004 we have not been able
to drastically reduce unemployment and hence Limpopo Province
remains one of the highest. We see a similar increase on HIV and
AIDS.
In
response to the challenges of poverty, hunger, HIV and AIDS and
other debilitating social and physical ills, the Department provides
a continuum of integrated services that target the poorest
population of the Province. These services address the psychosocial
needs, through social welfare services, socio-economic needs through
social grant, and developmental needs through community development
and poverty relief programmes. Social Security which deals with
social grant is seen as the biggest poverty relief programme of
government. It should however be complemented by other services to
ensure that needs and challenges of the population are addressed in
a holistic and sustainable manner.
We
also have the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP). This a
national programme aimed at creating employment accompanied with
training and payment of stipend for unemployed people in the 9
provinces. It is focused on women, youth and people with
disabilities. This programme in our province has so far reached:
-
700 gardeners trained
on Vegetable propagation (General gardening maintenance)
-
700 cooks trained on
Cooks
-
107 youth trained on
vocational skills.
-
608 practitioners
completed training on Child Care Level 1
-
1
500 started training on Community Care Support Level 1 in
September 2006
-
Skills audit for 600
Community Care Givers started in October
-
A
Memorandum of Agreement signed with Unsombovu Youth Fund
We
have gathered here as a collective and as individuals to inspire,
encourage and support one another towards the envisaged notional and
global goal of eradicating poverty through self-help initiatives.
Through the inspiration
and support of the department and various stakeholders, such as Old
Mutual and others, communities have been able to establish 785
self-help projects at an amount of R110 million since 1994. Types of
established projects vary from bread-making, sewing, gardens,
brick-making, poultry, juice, fence and others.
Since 2003 to date, the
Department has introduced emergency food relief. This is a
multi-pronged approach aimed at meeting the immediate food and other
consumption needs to vulnerable households and individuals
simultaneously assessing the cause and effect of their
vulnerability, recognizing their strengths and developing
appropriate strategies for sustainable socio-economic development.
To
address the devastating effects of HIV and AIDS which is mercilessly
destroying communities, families, leaving the children without any
means of livelihood, leaving children to take care of themselves,
exposing children to all sorts of social ills, we have in
collaboration with communities and stakeholders established 92
drop-in centers and 75 home based care centers throughout the
Province. We salute the volunteers, NGO, FBO and NPO’s who are
rendering this very demanding service for our people.
We
call upon the following community action to:
-
Compulsory education:
Support government action of eradication poverty through
compulsory schooling. If our children go to school they will learn
skills to help them and their families to earn a living.
-
Crèches: Establish
Early Childhood Development centres that will help build a strong
foundation for our children’s education.
-
Cooperatives: Organise
ourselves into cooperative to have projects like bakeries,
poultry, brick making knitting and sewing and many other projects.
-
Greenery projects: Let
us first start gardens in our homes and later use these skills in
a collective to develop vegetables gardens to an extend that we
feed our communities and neighbouring towns. Such effort would
help both poverty eradication and provide proper nutrition for
families.
The
department is determined to continue to supporting and strengthening
community initiatives that are geared towards poverty eradication
and sustainable livelihood within communities.
It
is also extremely pleasing to inform you that Thakgalang Poultry
Project received Sizanani Golden Award in Cape Town on the 25th
August 2006. What an encouraging effort. I am also informed that the
project has been able to purchase its own vehicle out of its own
proceeds. This is what I would like to see happening in all
projects.
Enjoy the day and do not
forget our theme which is “promoting full employment and decent work
for all”
Thank you .
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