The national war room for a War against Poverty was one of the more ringing phrases in the State of the Nation speech, but what does it mean?
For one, it’s not a room, says Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya, but signals a reprioritisation of economic policy from a focus on growth to a focus on caring.
The vision was informed by Skweyiya’s visits to mostly rural areas, where he found that even if children were receiving social grants they continued to live in mud houses, did not go to school, had no access to health facilities and generally continued to face a bleak future.
The war room is a plan to coordinate the work done by various government departments, including social development, education, provincial and local government, trade and industry, housing, health and public works.
Skweyiya told the Mail & Guardian on Thursday that the concept was directly borrowed from Latin American countries, such as Brazil, Chile and Mexico, where leftist governments began implementing them in the early Nineties.
This followed years of increasing wealth gaps, which led to conflicts in those countries.
Skweyiya said that his director general, Vusi Madonsela, and an official from the presidency would visit Brazil in the next few weeks to finalise their importation of that country’s model.
‘In South Africa we also had to start from scratch, creating a new state and a new civil service. The Mandela administration concentrated on the new state, facilitating reconciliation and peace. When Thabo Mbeki came in he continued to make sure the economy grew and in the process created a petty bourgeoisie, which liberals hoped would cushion the demands of the poor.
‘But we now have to look after the poorest of the poor. Now we have to galvanise our efforts against poverty. Poverty is not only about hungry people but lack of access to education, to skills and therefore to work opportunities.â€
When will we know we are winning the war? Skweyiya said he will begin to loosen his battle gear once there are schools of good quality for the poorest children. ‘These schools should have water, sanitation, electricity and laboratories. Our schools and further education institutions should not produce people with certificates but with no skill.â€
Skweyiya said government would consider the unpopular idea of children’s homes if society failed to look after children. ‘These children must go to school, have inoculations, have a roof over their heads and the state should look after those who are orphaned. If not, we will look at homes.â€
Government is also looking at increasing the value of social grants because of ‘the erosion of the value of the grants over the yearsâ€. It asked the Economic Policy Research Institute to investigate whether the increases failed to match inflation.
An official in his department said the poverty means test, of R1 800 a month, should be increased to households with income above R2 000 a month. The ultimate aim was to phase out means testing.
Skweyiya said grants did not lead to dependence and perverse incentives. He said the positive social impact of the grants was indisputable.