Equality: 'we're getting there'
Themba Gadebe
14 July 2005
South Africa has made remarkable progress in fighting poverty and achieving equality between men and women in all sectors of society, says Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya.
Skweyiya was addressing the media in Johannesburg on Tuesday, World Population Day.
Skweyiya said research showed that one of most effective ways to fight poverty and inequality was with social grants. He quoted a recent study which, he said, "indicates that 97.5% of older people and 95.8% of children will be free of ultra-poverty if we attain a full grant rate."
Almost 10-million South Africans receive grants, reducing social inequality by a third, the minister said.
Achieving potential
The minister said the government had sought to entrench and promote initiatives that allow women and children to achieve their full potential, through the adoption of the population policy in 1998.
This, he noted, was to eliminate
discrimination, protect women's rights and increase women's participation in decision-making processes.
Referring to the Freedom Charter, Skweyiya said equality, the theme of this year's World Population Day, had a special connotation for South Africans.
"It is significant that, 50 years after the People's Congress, the United Nations chooses this theme. Equality remains a fundamental right and value for which we have fought hard and remain passionate about," Skweyiya said.
Reproductive health
Progress had also been made in extending reproductive health care to women, Skweyiya said.
Almost all pregnant women now receive care, he said, while over 80% of babies are born in health facilities. The number of women who die during childbirth is declining, as are the numbers of infants who die after birth or during birth.
Skweyiya said that the number of teenage pregnancies had declined, and that the rate of HIV infection among
young South Africans had stabilised over recent years - an indication, he said, that young women were becoming sexually more responsible.
The minister noted, however, that a challenge remained in that that most households headed by women remained in poverty.
Another challenge was that economic growth had not had a significant impact on job creation and poverty reduction, although the country had experienced an economic growth rate of 2% to 4% in recent years.
Skweyiya said youth development ought to remain a priority for all sectors of society.
"The meaningful social and economic integration of young people, particularly young women, into our society is one of the most important vehicles towards sustainable development," Skweyiya said
Source: BuaNews
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