SA 'winning the war on poverty'
Shaun Benton
31 October 2007South Africans across all income groups currently earn on average about 22% more in real terms per person than in 1999, while the number of people living in poverty has also fallen, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel told Parliament in delivering his 2007 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement on Tuesday.
"In almost every area of public service delivery, from access to schooling and health care to refuse removal, from electrification to access to computers, from roads and street lights, from telecommunication services to access to public transport, we can point to steady progress in living standards," Manuel said.
Economic growth, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), has increased from an average of 3.3% between 1999 and 2004 to around 5% a year since then.
Employment has risen by about 2.7% a year since 2001, which the National Treasury says is faster "than at any point in the previous two decades". By March this year, the estimated unemployment rate was 25.5%, a decrease from 28% in 2004.
The number of South Africans living in poverty - based on a poverty line of about R3 000 per person per year in 2000 prices - has dropped steadily from 52.1% in 1999 to 47% in 2004 and to 43.2% by March this year.
The Treasury points out that this took place amid rising government spending, which has risen by an average of 9.4% a year for five years, making it now twice as high as it was in 1995.
This means that government spending per person has risen from R6 800 in 1995 to R10 560 per person in real 2007 prices.
The increased spending has been used to create no-fee schools benefiting the poorest 40% of the country's learners, to scale up HIV/Aids programmes to assist hundreds of thousands, and to expand SA's social grant system to serve over 12-million South Africans.
Since 1995, more than two million homes have been built and more than three million homes have been electrified, while more than 16-million people have been provided with first-time access clean water.
The Treasury also points out that free basic municipal services are now provided to more than 70% of South Africa's population.
Areas that will receive continued focus include accelerating the pace of growth and the rate of investment in South Africa's productive capacity, "decisive" interventions to accelerate job creation, and investment in community services and human development.
At the same time, says the Treasury, a "progressive social security net" must be maintained, while improving the capacity and effectiveness of the state, including boosting crime-combating and promoting a service-oriented public administration, as well as building regional and international partnerships for growth and development.
Source: BuaNews
