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South Africa’s poverty figures show a decline Print E-mail
Written by MGM/daj/APA   
Thursday, 26 July 2007
Poverty in South Africa registered a strong decline between 2002 and last year, official data released by Statistics South Africa.

The ratio of households in which one child went hungry fell to 2.4% last year from 6.7% in 2002, while the ratio in which an adult went hungry fell to 2.5% from 6.9%, according to an annual survey from Statistics South Africa.

Other key living standard measures showed that the proportion of households with access to electricity, water, toilets and waste removal rose significantly during that period, backing evidence that conditions for South Africa’s poor are improving.

“The findings suggest that, in terms of several of the main dimensions of poverty, the situation is likely to have improved over the period 2002 to 2006,” said Statistics South Africa.

Analysts said it was hard to say how many of South Africa’s 47.9 million people were poor as the term was relative, depending on the threshold used, and there was no standard measure for South Africa.

In its February budget, the treasury said that it would introduce an official poverty line for South Africa this year, based on minimum food needs and essential items, in order to measure the extent and nature of poverty and to monitor the pace at which it was being reduced. Statistics South Africa is preparing figures with a monthly income of R322 as one proposed threshold, with a final report due in the third quarter of this year.

Rapid growth in social grants — which had risen an average of nearly 20% over each of the past four years- got most of the credit for reducing poverty, although employment growth had played a role, said analysts.

Grants for old age, disability, foster care and child support amounted to R10.9 billion (US$1.6 million) last year. This is about 12% of the total spent by the government and reaches nearly 13% of the population.

“Government policies are working. There is momentum, better funding and better processes behind service delivery,” said Statistics South Africa.

Official figures show that about 1.5-million jobs were created in the past three years, but South Africa is still saddled with a jobless rate of more than 25%, one of the highest in the world.

The percentage of households that used electricity climbed to 81.3% last year from 75.6% in 2002, while the ratio of households with pipe-borne water rose to 71.3% from 66.1%, showed Statistics South Africa’s figures.
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 25 July 2007 )