President Cyril Ramaphosa has admitted that many South African people were living in poverty.
Speaking at the ANC’s 55th elective conference at Nasrec Convention Centre outside Joburg on Friday, 16 December, he said though the ANC has ensured that the percentage of people that experienced hunger has decreased it was unacceptable that around half of all South Africans live in poverty and a quarter lives below the food poverty line.
He said the party has come up with several interventions against poverty, with the provision of social grants being the most significant.
He said just over 2.5 million people were receiving social grants in 1999 and that number has increased to over 18 million. He said the ANC-led government came to citizens' rescue during Covid 19 pandemic with the introduction of the special Social Relief of Distress grant.
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"According to estimates by some researchers, without this expansion of social support in the past two years, poverty would have been 5% higher among the poorest households," he said He said in the long term, one of the most effective instruments to end poverty was education.
However, he said according to Statistics South Africa, there were around 1.6 million children in Early Childhood Development facilities.
"But this only accounts for about a third of children aged between 3 and 5, which means that there is a huge gap that needs to be closed before we can give all children the start they need in life," said Ramaphosa.
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On economic recovery, he said it was ANC’s responsibility to ensure that the economy did not simply return to where it was before the pandemic, but that it was more inclusive, more diverse and that it could provide employment and economic opportunity to the millions of people who remain marginalised.
"An essential part of a more inclusive economy is greater access to land for all those who work it and need it. The acceleration of land," said Ramaphosa.
