Cape Town - Cape Town prides itself on being one of the best-run cities in the country, but scores of households are battling to feed themselves.
Buying food has emerged as a major problem for Cape Town’s poorest residents. This is one of the trends noted in the City of Cape Town’s draft poverty alleviation strategy.
When completed, this strategy will be used to compile an action plan, throwing a lifeline to Cape Town’s poorest residents.
Service delivery protests have caused chaos in the city over the past few weeks, and the draft strategy finds that service delivery remains a “prominent point of contention”. Yet it states the city’s provision of the most basic services is improving.
The data in the draft strategy comes from several sources, including Statistics SA, and draws on figures from city studies as well as the provincial and national governments.
It provides a snapshot of poverty in the city, which is home to around 3.6 million people.
This is the figure from the 2009 labour force survey from Stats SA. It shows the majority of the 3.6 million are coloured, at 46 percent, or just over 1.7 million. This is followed by black African residents at 38 percent, just over 1.3 million. And there are just over 540 000 white residents, making up 14 percent of the population. There are 14 000 Asian residents.
More than 36 percent of city households earn less than R3 500 a month.
The poverty scale shows very different situations for different races. The city’s draft strategy also uses the categories, white, black African and coloured.
The majority of the city’s residents, mostly coloured and black, are also the poorest. Coloured and black residents also have the lowest level of education. And some of the proposed employment plans will target this demographic.
It shows that 15 percent of households ran out of money to buy food in the previous year. This is dominated by coloured residents, with 23 percent. Fourteen percent of black households went hungry, while 4 percent of white households found themselves in the same position.
Unemployment varied widely between the race groups. The unemployment rate was 24 percent. And of the groups, black residents faced the biggest challenge with unemployment rates at 35 percent. Around 21 percent of coloured residents and 6 percent of white residents are unemployed.
However, white residents fared much better when it came to education. More than 90 percent have at least completed matric, while 39.9 percent of coloured residents and 39.4 percent black Capetonians attained their matric.
“When considering the attainment of higher and further education, assessing the difference between racial breakdowns of these statistics, there still remain clear distinctions,” reads the report.
The trend follows through when looking at how many people furthered their studies after school. More than half of Cape Town’s white population have obtained some kind of tertiary qualification.
This is compared to 11 percent among coloured residents and just 8 percent of black residents.
In housing, it was found the number of backyarders had climbed. It was suggested this was due to increased migration from other provinces, mainly the Eastern Cape.
The increasing population is also putting a strain on making a dent on the 400 000-strong housing waiting list. And the report admits that providing homes to a “rapidly expanding population is becoming increasingly unrealistic”.
It does, however, find that more Cape Town residents are accessing water, sanitation and electricity.
“Overall the city’s level of service provision remains one of its strengths,” states the draft strategy.
Now the city plans to use these numbers to draft a plan to assist those in need.
Some of the proposed projects include training residents in different trades. For instance, they would attend courses to become electricians, brick-layers and plumbers.
From here, they could start working for themselves or use their new skills to find employment.
“This programme is especially important in coloured and black communities due to the fact that a high percentage of individuals have not matriculated,” states the draft strategy.
Another possibility was giving food hampers to the “most needy” to deal with immediate problems.
The strategy is still being refined. And when it’s completed it will be launched by the city’s Social Development Department. It’s not immediately clear how this strategy will be different from other poverty alleviation methods in Cape Town.
The city declined to comment on the strategy, citing that it was still a “work in progress”.
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