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| By Bokwe |May 6th, 2010

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ABOUT half of South Africa’s population is living in poverty, a problem that is not going to be solved overnight, says the Deputy Director-General of Social Development, Selwyn Jehoma.
He said the poverty situation in the country was “very significant” and most people believed it would take about a generation to solve. He said it had been estimated – depending on what measure was used – that about 50 percent of the South African population was poor.
“So we are looking at almost 24 million living in abject poverty These include children, the elderly, the unemployed, and caregivers of children.”
Jehoma made this assessment when taking part in the SAfm Radio panel discussion programme, the After Eight Debate, on the topic of social grants and whether they could be used to eradicate poverty.
He said the nature of poverty was multi-dimensional.
“We are not just talking about people without income. We are talking about people without skills, capabilities, people without assets they could potentially have transacted with, a lack of services …”.
Jehoma said the problem was not uniform throughout the country.
“It has that rural-urban divide,” he said.
“The nature of our history is such that people were forced into rural areas where the land was not arable and had less potential.”
There is also a gender divide in the effects of poverty, he said. Women suffer more than men in terms of poverty, he added.
The poverty problem was so huge that only the government could make any significant impact on it, said second panelist, Jacob Molapisi, spokesman for the South African National NGO Coalition (Sangoco).
Molapisi said the country’s NGOs were doing the best they could with the little resources they had.
“NGOs are donor dependent and donor driven, so there is not much we can do.”
Molapisi said in response to a question from a caller that education was crucial to get the birth control message across to the population. He said it was an important factor to combat poverty.
“So whether you talk health or you talk birth control, it must be complemented by a very good system of education and we know that is not possible.”
A third panelist, Thandiwe Zulu, director of the Black Sash, said her organisation was now driving a rights education programme.
“We are going out to communities in terms of making them aware of what rights and what services are available out there.”
Zulu said the Black Sash had also made submissions about poverty alleviation to the parliamentary portfolio committee on social development. “We make submissions in terms of policies.”