Antonio Gramsci, the influential communist writer, has a quote that when applied to the National Budget, tells a story of government adopting a “holding position” when more direct and deliberate action is needed to tackle what the African National Congress refers to as triple challenge – unemployment, inequality and poverty. The quote is: The crisis consists [...]
Table on maths performance in the 2012 Annual National Assessment.
Summary – Unemployment data in South Africa from Second Quarter 2012, based on Statistics South Africa data.
Statistics South Africa released it’s annual report titled “Selected development indicators” yesterday, 3 May 2011. The report provides important data on government performance on its programmes. One of the most important descriptors is an attempt to measure the extent of poverty in South Africa. The report defines the poor as households with a monthly expenditure of R 2500-00 of below. This measure shows that two-thirds of South African’s households are poor.
Based on the data available, the calculations for each province was undertaken, which shows variances across the provinces. These are represented in the table below:
Indicators | Total Number of Households | Number of households classified as poor using household monthly expenditure of below R2500-00 as the cut-off | % of households with monthly expenditure below R 2500-00 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Western Cape | 1581 | 732 | 46.3 |
| Gauteng | 3826 | 1977 | 51.7 |
| South Africa | 14756 | 9788 | 66.3 |
| Free State | 907 | 616 | 67.9 |
| North West | 1006 | 709 | 70.5 |
| Northern Cape | 327 | 231 | 70.6 |
| Mpuma-langa | 1050 | 753 | 71.7 |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 2802 | 2065 | 73.7 |
| Eastern Cape | 1820 | 1430 | 78.6 |
| Limpopo | 1437 | 1275 | 88.7 |
Photo: Hannelie Coetzee, MediaClubSouthAfrica.com
In the last session of the second annual Economic Development Programme conference hosted by the Economic Development Department, a series of remarkable commitments emerged from business and labour leaders, on government’s Infrastructure Investment Plan.
The session chair and convener of the Economic Development Conference, Minister Ebrahim Patel posed a series of questions to the panelists focused around commitment to the plan and the commitments sectors were willing to make . The panel consisted of:
Bobby Godsell representing Business Leadership South Africa argued that the long term nature of the infrastructure investment framework provided the space for business to think about the next twenty years as opposed to the next quarter. In turn, he argued that the private sector should “seek a realistic and sensible” rate of return. The rate of return he ventured would be a real return, but would be in single digits.
Different Legacies - Presidents Manmohan Singh, Thabo Mbekiand Lula da Silva Credit:By Ricardo Stuckert [CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)
One debate that is emerging on explaining Brazil’s outcomes is occurring under the moniker “Lulismo”. The word derives from the name of President Lula, and seeks to explain the choices that were made by Brazil during that period. It however also suggests that there might be doubts of future leaders being able to replicate the gains capable under a leader, like President Lula. The debate however is largely conducted in Portuguese, which means that the textures and nuances of the debate cannot be fully comprehended by someone that does not speak Portuguese.
The features of the debate that we could glean ask a couple of demanding questions:
The debate seems furious and polarised. The underlying question is one that South Africa would love to have -Why has our society become more equal, and can we sustain it over the longer term?
Failing to resolve educational challenge, means fewer jobs. KwaZulu-Natal Midlands: Ceramic painters Zama Nqubuku (foreground) and Wiseman Ndlovu at work in the Ardmore Ceramics studio. Photo: Hannelie Coetzee . Credit Media Club South Africa
Andile Lungisa’s – Chairperson of the National Youth Development Agency and ANCYL leader – call for the de-unionisation of teaching has sparked a furore. The arguments focus on the constitutional right for workers to belong to organisation, and that focus must be placed on the real problems facing education. I however argue that the problems in labour relations in the education lies not only with the trade unions, but with government, who have not fulfilled their responsibility as an employer.
Improving education in South Africa is the most important priority in South Africa. When I look at our results on the international benchmark examinations, I am angry with us as a society. We have literally failed a generation of children in South Africa. To put it bluntly, we perform very poorly on the international examinations, with some assessments of the results placing last in the world for performance on the Mathematics examinations. We are facing a crisis in education, and we must act.
Instead of acting to resolve the situation, there is this constant repetition that the trade unions are too blame. Here are a couple of refrains I have heard over the last few weeks:
