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Background Statistics are critical in holding governments accountable for the well-being of citizens with disability. International initiatives are underway to improve the quality of disability statistics, but meaningful ID data is exceptionally rare. Method The status of ID data was evaluated in a review of 12 national statistical systems. Recurring data collection by national ministries was identified and the availability of measures of poverty, exclusion, and disadvantage was assessed. Results A total of 131 recurring systems coordinated by 50 different ministries were identified. The majority included general disability but less than 25% of the systems screened ID. Of these, few provided policy-relevant data. Conclusions The scope of ID data was dismal at best, though a significant statistical infrastructure exists for the integration of ID data. Advocacy will be necessary. There is no optimal form of data monitoring, and decisions regarding priorities in purpose, targeted audiences, and the goals for surveillance must be resolved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A majority of current HIV/AIDS interventions are designed primarily after individual-based public health models and pay little attention to the socioeconomic environment in which HIV transmission occurs. This article focuses on outlining how migration acts as a conduit for disease transmission in South Africa and then proposes a macro-level prevention model based on social capital theory, thus then supplementing current prevention literature. It is based on the argument that social disruption and stresses from migration lead to sexual interactions during the migration periods that amplify the risk of HIV transmission among migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that African working class households are the sites of a crisis of social reproduction in contemporary South Africa. Through a gendered analysis of five townships in Emnambithi the article demonstrates that African working class women are the shock absorbers of this crisis. While feminist scholars point to a growing crisis of social reproduction as a global phenomenon, the South African material illustrates how poor women experience this in the South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the consequences of Washington Consensus and more recently post-Washington Consensus policy for democratic good governance in Africa. It acknowledges the increased focus in recent years of policy-makers on poverty as an important force in world politics. Despite this increased concern the authors argue that International Relations as a discipline fails to offer a suitable framework for understanding poverty as a social force. The article proposes a revival of Robert W. Cox and Jeffrey Harrod's approach based on 'patterns of social relations of production'. This offers a disaggregation of the condition that is often referred to in the literature as 'the poor' or 'the informal sector'. The article then outlines a comparative research agenda based on the cases of Tunisia and South Africa. It demonstrates how these cases provide the sternest test for assessing the authors' scepticism of the prospects of reconciling market-led development with good governance, whilst also offering a 'most-different' comparison given their very different political cultures. In conclusion, the article reflects on the methodological aspects to operationalising such a research agenda and proposes an ethnographic approach informed by the work of Burawoy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do Africans tend to view democracy in more procedural or more substantive terms? This article argues that African endorsements of liberal and procedural understandings are not as pervasive as much of the literature on democratization suggests. Drawing upon Afrobarometer survey results as well as extensive fieldwork and interviews conducted over the past decade in South Africa, it demonstrates both the historical development and significance of these definitional understandings. By employing a substantive approach and thereby bringing questions of poverty and material inequality to the centre of the analysis, this article seeks to offer a perspective on democratization that helps to explain many of the challenges to the institutionalization of democratic regimes that procedural understandings fail to capture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the use of participatory video in finding solutions to challenges faced by schools and communities in the contexts of poverty and the AIDS pandemic in one rural community in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Locating the analysis within the study of feminist visual culture and the notion of the female gaze, the article focuses on a close reading of the production of a three-minute video produced by women participating in a project involving teachers, learners, community healthcare workers, and parents. We use textual analysis to look at three levels of textuality: the primary text, the production text, and audience text. Working with video offers a critical way to engage more broadly with texts within qualitative research in education, to engage women in examining their everyday lives, and to make visible new possibilities for addressing the problems of AIDS and poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the contributing factors to the endemic problems exacerbating the AIDS crisis in South Africa. The legacy of Apartheid, including the attendant problems of poverty, illiteracy, and disparate health statuses between the beneficiaries and victims of Apartheid, is explored. Because women are bearing the brunt of the infection, their experience of AIDS is also considered. A brief case study illuminating an AIDS-sensitive church is offered as an exemplar of self-determination and social networks used to sustain a South African township riddled by HIV disease. The article concludes by suggesting that the benefits of communal religious participation as a coping response to HIV disease requires further examination by social work and public health workers in South African communities of color with minimal resources to combat HIV disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contribution of wild edible leaves to the livelihoods of rural poor is widely acknowledged. Yet the notion of value of these natural resources is poorly understood. Using a case from Mkambati area, South Africa, this article suggests that in order to better understand resource value, both realized (in terms of material benefits and contributions to livelihoods) and notional (in terms of appreciation of resources and their potential uses), a broader livelihood context, which encompasses understanding of social and ecological dynamics, is crucial. Two axes of social difference, gender and wealth, emerged as playing a key role in determining value, through mediating, firstly, access to and control over ecological zones where these plants grow; and secondly use and labor required for collection. The article concludes that in order to enhance the contribution of wild edible leaves to poverty alleviation, policies should recognize the fact that resource value is primarily socially constructed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of the article is the genesis of Renier van Rooyen as entrepreneur during the founding years of Pep Stores Limited. Starting in the early 1950s, it traces Van Rooyen's development as entrepreneur from a clerk in a magistrate's office to co-ownership of the Bargain Shop (a small general dealership in Upington); the establishment of his first company, Bargain Stores (Pty) Ltd; and the founding of Pep Stores as a retail clothing company in 1965. The article attempts to situate these developments within the broader local, regional and national context of the time and tries to identify the circumstances that influenced Van Rooyen's early entrepreneurial development and the success of his business ventures. The Van Rooyen case suggests a wide range of circumstances - from childhood poverty, personal and family networks and the local and wider business community - to the socio-economic and political context. These are however secondary to the agency of the prime mover, Van Rooyen, who commands centre stage in his early entrepreneurial development and the eventual success of his business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from a cohort of schoolgoing children, their households and caregivers (the Amajuba Child Health and Wellbeing Project, ACHWRP) in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, we compared demographic characteristics, care burden, health, physical function and social capital of caregivers of orphans (n = 300) with those of non-orphans (n = 298). This analysis presents cross-sectional findings from questions for caregivers that were added for the study's second round, conducted between September 2005 and June 2006. Caregivers of all children were overwhelmingly women (87%). Compared to non-orphan caregivers, caregivers of orphans were on average older (49.5 vs. 45.2 years, p = 0.0002), had fewer years of education (6.7 vs. 7.8 years, p = 0.0042) and were less likely to be married or cohabiting (29% vs. 46%; p < 0.0001). Caregivers of orphans reported caring for more children than those of non-orphans (4.8 vs. 3.8 children, p < 0.0001). A larger proportion of orphan caregivers reported having cared for an ill adult in the previous year (28% vs. 19%), and for that adult to have been a biological child (p = 0.0531). There was a high prevalence (55%) of self-reported poor health among all caregivers; caregivers of orphans were more likely to report poor general health and chronic illness. Although there was a high prevalence of functional impairment (self-reported inability to perform primary activity) among all caregivers (59%), there was no difference between groups. In terms of social capital, although similar proportions of orphan and non-orphan caregivers reported having friends outside the household, orphan caregivers were less likely to have a source of a small emergency loan [51% vs. 63%; adjusted odds ratio: 0.60 (0.41-0.88)]. Our results suggest that orphan caregivers are indeed more vulnerable, and that their particular limitations and needs must be considered when developing strategies for assisting vulnerable households to ensure better support for both caregivers and the children in their care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our purpose in the present study was to examine how two different sets of stressors, one representing the physical environment and the other representing the social environment, related to perceived stress among new mothers served by a health clinic in Khayelitsha, South Africa. We found that among the chronic urban poverty-environmental stressors related to water, housing, transportation, toileting, and lack of food, that lack of drinkable water in the home had the strongest correlation with perceived stress. In terms of social stressors we found that 60% of new mothers had no partner, and 43% of those with a partner reported that they currently were not coresiding. In terms of the social stressors, the inability to depend on a partner in times of trouble had the strongest relationship to perceived stress. Other findings relating to partner support are discussed as well as sample and community characteristics. Given the importance of partner support, it is argued that the conditions of poverty itself serve to destabilize relationships, which in turn contributes to the cycle of poverty experienced by many residents of periurban settlements like Khayelitsha. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, AIDS has become part of the existential reality of most South Africans. The epidemic is imbricated in the cultural, moral and political landscape of everyday life. To speak about HIV/AIDS, its prevention, causes and effects often means touching on questions of power, inequity, the struggle for resources, and the contest to determine who has access to what kinds of material and symbolic capital. Such politics are played out not only in public arenas at the macro-structural or institutional level, in law, policy, governance and media, but equally and relatedly in moments and spaces that pertain to the most intimate and mundane aspects of the lives of ordinary people. In this article, we reflect on such politics and economics of intimacy, focusing on the terrain of sexual and reproductive logics, strategies for survival and livelihood, and their implications for the HIV/AIDS epidemic. We draw our observations from ongoing work on the social context of reproductive dynamics in South Africa, and, in particular, from a case study of the Winterveld area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The panel study known as the KwaZulu-Natal Income Dynamics Study (KIDS) has been extended by a new wave of data collection conducted in 2004. This third wave of the study interviewed 865 households containing core adult members from 760 of the households contacted in 1993. It also conducted interviews in next-generation households that have split off from the parental households and in the current households of children who have been fostered out. The study finds that the proportion of people aged 20-44 dying between the second and third waves was nearly three times the proportion dying between the first two waves. The pattern of income distribution is one of increasing poverty and inequality since 1993, although the partial reversal of these trends in the post-1998 period is hopeful, as are signs of relative prosperity among those who established independent next-generation households. In addition, access to services has improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The democratic approach to defining poverty is set in its theoretical context. The relevance of the approach for South Africa is discussed, and a definition is presented which emerges from quantitative research undertaken in South Africa in 2005. Various issues are considered in relation to the South African case, in particular the extent and nature of consensus across different groups; evidence of whether bounded realities and adaptive preferences could be deflating the definition; and a consideration of how the definition may change over time, particularly in relation to transitional necessities and the views of young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Significant research efforts have been devoted to understanding the effects of macroeconomic factors on the agriculture sector. Analysing the sources of volatility in the industry is critical for designing appropriate policies to stabilize agricultural markets, reduce poverty and increase economic growth. Agriculture is a competitive sector with prices that are more flexible than those in nonagricultural sectors. This article uses annual data over the 1957-2004 period and a vector error-correction model in investigating the dynamic effects of exchange rates, money supply and other macroeconomic variables on the agricultural sector in South Africa. Overall, real exchange rates, interest rates, inflation and money supply (M3) shocks have significant and persistent impacts on agricultural output, prices received by farmers and farm input prices. M3 and interest rate shocks tend to put agriculture in a cost-price squeeze. Agricultural price movements are a source of macroeconomic instability in the country. Real exchange rate shocks shift relative prices in favour of agriculture in the long-run, thereby, boosting farm incomes and accelerating poverty reduction in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are indications that poor people may face obstacles to their rural-urban migration. This article pursues the question of whether this is the case in the South African context. It argues for the importance of longitudinal data, which are not available at present, to answer this question conclusively. Levels of education can be used as a proxy for income levels, and the article examines recently published multivariate data in this regard. However, using education as a proxy for income is problematic, because education has an independent effect on migration rates through its selection of those with the skill levels demanded by the labour market. The article develops an argument about the constraining effects of the costs of migration and the role of social networks in migration and ends by demonstrating how the costs of migration can solve a number of puzzles presented by empirical research on migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 1990s, eastern Free State vegetable farmers increasingly relied on migrants from neighbouring Lesotho for seasonal labour. This coincided with a major downsizing of the mine labour force in South Africa, hitherto the major employer of Basotho migrant workers. However, there was no simple process of transfer of unemployed migrants from the mining to the farming sector; rather, decisions were mediated by domestic relationships and household poverty in Lesotho. Basotho women and girls have been a major casualty of mine retrenchments and the drying up of remittances, and those with domestic skills but little formal training have been forced into the labour market, mainly domestic work in towns and labour on farms. This article examines the Basotho migrants' experiences and conditions of employment, the regulatory environment within which they are recruited and employed, and their future in the context of changing immigration and migration legislation in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interviews were carried out with 16 South African Zulu widows. Much of what the widows had to say seemed like what one might hear from widows in economically developed countries, but there were also striking differences. All the widows lived in poverty, and for some their grief seemed much more about the poverty than about the husband's death. Most widows observed a year of traditional ukuzila mourning practices, which made them a threat to others and which is difficult to carry out in the social upheaval of modern South Africa. Widowhood was in some cases a struggle with witchcraft—as cause of the death or as an accusation directed at the widow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For more than fifty of the world's poorest countries such as Thailand, Zambia, and Egypt, tourism is ranked first, second or third in terms of their economies, and tourism is the only service industry to show a positive balance of trade with flows from first world countries to developing countries exceeding those in the opposite flow by US$ 66 million. Yet tourism has only very recently been recognised by some aid donors, some international funding agencies, and some segments of the industry as an appropriate instrument for poverty reduction (WTO, 2000). This article addresses the role of tourism as a development strategy in poverty alleviation, discussing the possible strategic senarios for future tourism in South Africa with special focus on local community involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The disturbing prevalence of sexual slavery in South Africa is variously attributed to extreme poverty, unemployment, war, lack of food, and traditional practices that make it acceptable to treat women as commodities. Such ‘causes’ are better understood as enabling conditions. The demand for sex workers, organised criminal syndicates and the failure of legal imagination are the real drivers of the South African market. The authors address this failure of legal imagination and suggest how the constitutional prohibition against slavery can be used to develop a legal doctrine of sexual slavery, as well as on appropriate set of remedies, that will assist the State in its efforts to eradicate sexual trafficking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the Department of Social Development, disability grants are available to adult South African citizens and permanent residents who are incapacitated and unable to work due to illness or disability. A number of people living with HIV/AIDS (PWAs) have accessed disability grants once they have fulfilled the criteria set down by the Department of Social Development. Current government policies entitle PWAs, a least in theory, to access antiretroviral medications. Where PWAs have been able to access antiretroviral treatment (ART) through the government's antiretroviral programme, this has led to an improvement in their health and subsequent disqualification for a disability grant. In South Africa's highly unequal society, the disability grant often operates as the only source of income for poor families. This has created an untenable situation as many PWAs are forced to choose between receiving their disability grant and accessing life-saving medication. We explore the intersection of social security with access to ART and argue that it presents complex problems in the context of HIV/AIDS, and thus requires urgent debate and resolution. Potential solutions to this problem, including the provision of a basic income grant to all South Africans, are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite good intentions and commitment from providers, prevention-of-mother-to-child-transmission of HIV (PMTCT) services can be difficult for pregnant women to access, despite the provision of free health services for women and children. We examined the introduction of PMTCT services in a very poor rural area of the Eastern Cape, South Africa, to assess the context's impact on the provision of this service. Our approach involved 13 individual in-depth interviews and 26 focus group discussions, spread over six clinics in a single district, supplemented by situational observations. Our goal was to suggest how access to PMTCT services at the clinics may be improved. Poor roads, an underdeveloped transport system and poor telecommunications typify the pervasive poverty in the study area. Families have few resources for travel and most live a long distance from a clinic. Accessing emergency transport is especially difficult and expensive. Poor infrastructure also means that many families do not have access to clean water, which complicates the use of infant formula. PMTCT services had been recently added to several clinics that provide general services to the local population, but that were already understaffed and over-pressured. Since the PMTCT services were new, some elements of the intervention and staff training were delayed, thus inhibiting full implementation. New staff had not been added to ease accumulated pressures. Thus, socio-economic context can present a formidable barrier to the provision of PMTCT services. Improvement in services to rural areas will require creative thinking, perhaps including the use of mobile services and the development of community structures, such as contributions to community health education by traditional birth attendants and local volunteer groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses household income mobility among Africans in South Africa's most populous province, KwaZulu-Natal, between 1993 and 1998. Compared to industrialised and most developing countries, mobility has been quite high, as might have been expected after the transition in South Africa. This finding is robust when measurement error is controlled for. When disaggregating the sources of mobility, it is found that demographic changes and employment changes account for most of the mobility observed which is related to rapidly shifting household boundaries and a very volatile labour market in an environment of high unemployment. Using a multivariate analysis, it can be seen that transitory incomes play a large role. Four types of poverty traps are found, associated with large initial household size, poor initial education, poor initial asset endowment and poor initial employment access that dominate the otherwise observed regression towards the mean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa is a nation of immense variety. It has rich cultural diversity, an enviable climate and an abundance of natural resources. However, it is also a nation with vast economic disparities and a highly unequal distribution of income. Hence, in spite of abundant resources and a seemingly vibrant economy, South Africa still faces an enormous poverty problem that is fundamentally no different from that of other African countries. As in many other African countries this problem of poverty is compounded by the HIV/AIDS pandemic; by high levels of unemployment; by low levels of education; and by a number of other factors. Today, South Africa has one of the best constitutions in the world and a Bill of Rights that contains an array of justiciable socio-economic rights. The South African government has also attempted to alleviate poverty and mitigate its effects through progressively developing and expanding a social welfare system and other programmes such as the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) and the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) strategy. The purpose of this article is to analyse the role of human rights (specifically the Bill of Rights in the Constitution) and government efforts to alleviate poverty (through certain programmes and service delivery) in the face of adverse socio-economic realities in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This pilot study addresses the need to clarify specific developmental vulnerabilities and strengths that characterise children living in child-headed households in comparison to children living in adult-headed households in equivalent impoverished communities. Samples of 10 each of these two categories of household were randomly selected from impoverished communities around Pietermaritzburg, South Africa (involving a total of 22 children from a child-headed households and 41 from an adult-headed households). Fourteen child-participatory, quantitative and/or qualitative measures were investigated over six indicative themes. Differences between the child-headed and adult-headed households were statistically or thematically analysed as appropriate to the data collected. Specific areas of vulnerability in the former households were access to institutional/social services, income (cash or kind) and resource generation, unresolved grief, lack of attainable long-term goals, poor self-worth, and poor internal locus of control. Specific strengths of children in those households were demonstrated in social networking, time and money management, and family interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that skills development in South Africa must be aligned to the economic and political imperatives of reducing unemployment and poverty, while fostering growth and international competitiveness. The legacy of a resource-based economy, overlaid by apartheid policies, has resulted in widespread poverty, inequality and unemployment existing alongside globally competitive industries. It is therefore necessary to foster employment through the provision of basic needs such as infrastructure, healthcare and education to the poor, while at the same time deepening linkages within the domestic economy to broaden economic participation and actively promoting international competitiveness to enhance exports. This analysis points to the need for a dual development trajectory. The first level requires a high skills trajectory to support the ongoing expansion of high-value traded goods and services. The second level requires the expansion of low productivity, non-traded goods and services to redress unemployment and must be underpinned by the provision of low and intermediate skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides statistical estimates of the level of relative poverty over time in the Western Cape province of South Africa, using data sets from Statistics South Africa. It seems that relatively large numbers of Black and Coloured households are chronically poor, and that substandard education and living conditions are likely to be causing this situation. The authors propose short-term and long-term poverty alleviation plans that aim to increase accessibility to social services and to raise educational levels, to ensure sustainable livelihoods for the people concerned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relevance and importance of informal safety nets that buffer poor households from livelihood hardships have been given little attention in South Africa's development programmes to date. This article contributes to the understanding of informal safety nets by investigating local perceptions in a South African informal settlement. The main findings of the study are that families perform an important safety net function, but that these sources of assistance can be susceptible to social isolation. Immediate neighbours and friends also play an important safety net role, but these reciprocal-based sources of assistance may be difficult to secure. Community-wide threats cats have a severe impact on people's ability to engage in safety net transfers. Many of these difficulties stem from South Africa's structural unemployment crisis. This factor is the greatest danger to the future of the informal safety net system in the informal settlement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an intimate relationship between development and evaluation, to the extent that the very definition of development entails a value judgment about things that are worth promoting. Thus, the goal of development defines the metric for assessing its effectiveness. In the face of the challenge presented by the limited success of past development efforts, the development community has been searching for a new paradigm. Empowerment is emerging not only as an ultimate goal of development, but also as a fundamental determinant of its effectiveness. Furthermore, this perspective of development has prompted the international community to declare poverty eradication a fundamental objective of development and, therefore, a benchmark measure of the performance of socio-economic systems. This article examines some implications of this view of development for both the focus and the method of evaluation. The institutional dimension in assessing effectiveness is emphasised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a framework for the analysis of the relationship between different macroeconomic, sector and commodity policies and the multiplier effects of agriculture. It starts with a listing of the macroeconomic, sector and commodity policies that have been included in the analysis. These should be considered in conjunction with the likely roles of agriculture along each of the dimensions of the social, poverty and cultural roles of agriculture. These policies and roles should be conceptualised as the vertical and horizontal axes respectively of a 'policy role' matrix. The 'cells' of this matrix - the policy role interactions - are discussed with respect to the immediate macroeconomic, agricultural, economic, institutional and social impact of the policy change on the agricultural sector at farm, regional, national and multinational levels, and thereafter on the role of agriculture in terms of each of the dimensions identified above. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Addressing Aids and unemployment is one of the greatest challenges facing South Africa at present. Health and welfare interventions will be costly and are likely to meet with resistance from taxpayers. Expanding employment (which will help alleviate poverty and expand the pool of taxpayers) is thus necessary. An inclusive social accord could help, but only if organised labour is prepared to make concessions, as was the case in the new social accords in Australia, Ireland and the Netherlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of the results in the 1999 October Household Survey and the 2002 Labour Force Survey suggests that the number of people in the bottom two expenditure classes (R0-R399 and R400-R799 per household per month) increased by about 4,2 million over the period. As the boundaries of these expenditure classes remained constant in nominal terms, there is a likelihood that the number of people in poverty will have increased as well. This article attempts to discover whether this is indeed the case. The possible increase in the number of people in poverty is not equal to the increase in the number of people in these two expenditure categories. Rather, it is equal to the difference between the numbers of people in poverty in the two years. Our first crude estimate of the maximum potential number of 'new' poor suggests that it could be as high as 4,5 million. This estimate, which excludes any adjustments for possible underreporting of expenditure, child cost economies and household economies of scale, and the 'social wage', is whittled down as we attempt to make the relevant allowances. Responding to claims that poverty is increasing in the country, the government has pointed to a failure to consider the contribution of the social wage to the alleviation of poverty. Accordingly, we have also attempted to estimate the impact of the social wage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The welfare challenges in post-apartheid South Africa are best represented by the triumvirate of poverty, income inequality and unemployment. In turn, the one generally accepted mechanism for overcoming these challenges is for an economy to realise sustained levels of high economic growth. Herein lie the essential coordinates of this article. We attempt first to describe the post-apartheid experience with economic growth and its determinants. Secondly, we describe the nature of the welfare challenges that the society faces in terms of poverty, income inequality and unemployment. Finally, and perhaps most critically, we explore the various constraints on economic growth that may be hindering the realisation of higher standards of living amongst the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The jury is out and the verdict is in, according to most leftist commentators on the African National Congress government. The South African political leadership has forgotten its institutional and historical origins in the liberation struggle, sold out its constituencies and adopted a fatally flawed economic strategy bringing greater poverty, misery, inequality and injustice to the people of South Africa. Some critics believe that the adoption of neoliberalism has come about as a result of the capture of the President's Office by international capital.

Suggests the possible extermination of the human race due to diseases and poverty. Performance of heart transplant operations in South Africa in spite of apartheid-engendered international isolation; Efforts on the prevention of the HIV/AIDS pandemic; Development of medical advancements to eradicate tuberculosis, typhoid, leprosy, syphilis and cancer.

The successful and peaceful political transition in South Africa is regarded as a great accomplishment for its people. Unfortunately, democracy was not accompanied by economic growth and policies that could lead to a meaningful quality of life and an acceptable standard of living for all the country's citizens. There is a need for South Africa to reconcile the expectations resulting from the achievement of democracy with the realities of both the problems and the potential of the economy. As South Africa attempts to alleviate poverty through development, it is essential to balance the ever-increasing and often competing demands against limited natural resources. This article formulates some policies and programmes designed to combat poverty at its source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on standard poverty measures, the extent of poverty in the North West province is on average worse than in South Africa. For instance, the poverty gap ratio for North West is twice that of the South African average, and the FGT index is three times as high. This article therefore aims to identify the determinants of rural and urban poverty in the North West province of South Africa. Using data gathered from a survey of 593 black households across the province, probit model estimates suggest that the major significant determinants of household poverty in both rural and urban areas are education and household size. A difference between rural and urban poverty is, first, that extra female adults in a rural household raise the probability of poverty. Secondly, having a migrant (out) worker as head of the household in rural areas lowers the probability of poverty, while this does not apply to urban households. A sensitivity analysis for the robustness of the results over a range of poverty lines reveals that the impact of education is much stronger for poorer households than for more wealthy households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inquiries into poverty in the countries of the South have become a preoccupation and a focus for action among many institutions located in the North. This article interprets inquiries as cultural devices through which the complexities of North/South interactions can be analyzed. It builds on postcolonial critiques of these interactions, examining the role of inquiries in light of current debates about ethnocentrism. It examines the extent to which, in particular times and places, inquiries may act as “postcolonial” devices. The article focuses on an inquiry into poverty and development in southern Africa, known as the Second Carnegie Inquiry, which was carried out in South Africa during the 1980s with funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The hybrid framework adopted combines insights from the postcolonial turn with recent work in the geographies of science. By shifting the analysis from institutions, such as the Northern philanthropic trusts, to particular devices and their contexts, the article argues that the spatial genealogies of knowledge can be traced, together with the diverse modes and relations of power on which inquiries such as those of Carnegie are based and that they also serve to produce. This approach questions the assumption that, in their exercise of power at a distance, cultural institutions have fixed or singular identities. It provides the opportunity to highlight the uncertainties that frequently lie behind a projected global image and the ways in which this image may be deliberately harnessed and manipulated for specific purposes within the South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The itinerant sheep-shearing Karretjie (donkey cart) People of the arid Great Karoo of South Africa are among the poorest of the poor. They represent a rural underclass. Although they trace descent from both the early KhoeKhoen and San, there is no historical continuity between the present-day impoverished foragers and their pre-colonial nomadic forebears. The structural position of the Karretjie People, particularly their asymmetrical relationship with the wider community, was largely shaped by historical events. Their wandering lifestyle was a response to the expansion of commercial agriculture, especially the production of wool, in the region. Although several factors have recently started a trend toward sedentarism, most Karretjie People are still confined to their temporary shelters on the verges of the country roads. They have no land, or even free access to any space or place. Although they have, for generations, rendered an important service to the agricultural economy of the sheep-farming Karoo, they have remained at best, largely socio-economically 'invisible' to the local population or, at worst, strangers in their own land. The recognition that they have received locally has often come in pejorative terms: Boesman (Bushman) or Hotnot (Hottentot). Nationally, 'recognition' came with their being arbitrarily categorised as 'coloured' within the apartheid system, but acknowledgement in terms of poverty relief initiatives from successive governments was either not forthcoming or has still to affect their lives significantly. The Karretjie People are not untouched by coloured and Khoesan identity politics. Opportunistically 'discovered' as citizens by the main political parties for the 1994 election, they have become increasingly sensitised to the realities of disempowerment and political manoeuvring. They have, however, not yet asserted themselves: although they are aware of their Khoesan roots, their self-perception is still ill-defined and their autochthonous status not explicitly articulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, originally delivered as a public lecture in Pretoria at a forum hosted by the Southern African Regional Poverty Network (SARPN), outlines the key structural features of the newly launched and South African government-driven New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), as well as the main ways by which it intends to pursue its goal of poverty reduction in Africa. Kanbur argues that such are the needs of Africa's poor that NEPAD faces the risk that the demands on its resources will be greater than can be met and suggests that its proposed programmes be prioritized against three main criteria—are they well-suited to a regional organizations and they duplicate the efforts of other regional groupings? Do they require the authority of an institution rooted in democratic values? Will they directly and indirectly benefit the African poor? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the paradigm of the admissions social workers/marketer is not relevant in the context of long-term care services in South Africa, the role and function of social work remains significant none the less. A frame work of a developing country is presented where resources are sparse and unevenly distributed with the aged, frail and chronically ill amongst the most vulnerable of this country's citizens. A series of new roles and functions for South African social workers to respond to the wide spread poverty, enormous back logs in service provision, increasing need and economic stag nation are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Examines poverty targeting in South Africa's Western Cape Province using mixed method research and economic and sociological perspectives. Rise of community-based public works programs in South Africa; Formal and informal processes of project location in Western Cape Province; Correlations between district shares of poverty and unemployment to public works expenditures.

This article utilises a class of poverty measures to determine the potential cost to the fiscus, in 1995 rands, of alleviating poverty in South Africa. The simulations are undertaken for both households and individuals according to the different covariates of poverty. The study found that the commitment required from the state to reduce poverty is fairly modest, albeit within the parameters of very strict assumptions. In addition, the article illustrates that individual and household-level data impart differential poverty information, which is important for policy prescriptions. Finally, it is evident that for state targeting purposes, the nature of household poverty is fairly easily reduced to a small subgroup of labour market-defined household types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines gender issues of poverty, overwork, illiteracy and physical abuse in South Africa in the context of an African Renaissance. Gender inequality in South Africa; Opposition to African Renaissance in South Africa; Link between archaeology and renaissance; Suggestions on the role that archaeologists can play in fostering the renaissance; Social conditions of black women.

This article gives an overview of poverty, deprivation and homelessness as a social ill that is eating deep into the society’s fabric. It affirms that these concepts are inextricably linked, illustrating this with the case of the street homeless women. Furthermore, it describes the characteristics of street homeless women in Johannesburg inner city and their perception of poverty. It also describes the survival strategies adopted by these women on the streets. The article also illustrates that street homeless women suffer most from unprecedented population growth, high levels of poverty, homelessness, illiteracy and unemployment. They form part of the largest group of the poorly sheltered population. The street homeless women in particular constitute a population at risk, especially when the nature of their homelessness is concealed. The article suggests it might be appropriate to give special attention to the poorest segment of the population, which includes the street homeless women. They must be made to participate fully and equally in policies and strategies to alleviate poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the robustness of provincial poverty rankings against changes in measurement methodology for poverty rates in South Africa. Use of the concept of poverty critical range; Decomposable poverty measures; Results checked across two recent national data sets.

Migration and population movement are probably the most neglected of the significant dynamics behind rural poverty in South Africa. Little is known about how people move from place to place, and much of what we thought we knew may be incorrect. In Kwa-Zulu-Natal job search is no longer the single dominating reason given for migration. Instead, infrastructure ties with it for first place today, with land close behind. The first article in this two-part report notes that as many as two thirds of the province's disadvantaged families have broken away from their communities of origin and moved at least once during their lifetimes. Perhaps three million have migrated in the last fifteen years. A second unexpected finding is the predominance of rural-to-rural migration. Three quarters of all moves recorded were rural to rural, with many orientated towards advantaged rural areas around small towns and secondary cities. Results show how streams are channelled towards poverty or opportunity, and argue for a review of prevailing concepts of rural-urban relations which structure delivery efforts. The second article, to follow later, notes that recorded income levels are now higher in some rural destination areas than in the urban shack communities that accommodate rural-to-urban migrants. Results of various studies presented show how access to information affects migration patterns, and the article also explores the role of infrastructure as a determining force in the regional distribution of population and as a factor in people's own bootstrap anti-poverty efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the economic recession and the economic crisis in South Africa. The differentiation between recession and crisis refers fundamentally to the distinction between minor cyclical downswing and a more serious disruption to accumulation. To crush the economic crisis, South African state should restucture its social relations in order to create favorable conditions for economic growth. However, any attempt to resolve the crisis will not be realized without addressing the fundamental issues of mass poverty and huge disparities in wealth and income.

This study reports on teachers' perceptions of the effects of poverty on education participation in a district in the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa. Participants were 21 teachers (males = 10; females = 11) from seven schools (primary =5, high schools =1, special school =1). Focus group discussions and key informant interviews were used to collect the data. Teachers were of the view that poverty prevented learners and parents (or guardians) from full participation of the education provided by the schools. Poverty had the effects to disempowered both learners and parents as partners in education. It also constrained the quality of teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]