Poverty nodes project under fire

No effect in drop of unemployment levels in Mitchells Plain, Khayelitsha

THE DECISION that Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha participate in the government’s Urban Renewal Programme (URP) had no effect in the drop in poverty or unemployment levels in those areas, when compared with other urban areas in the city, Statistics SA has found.

While the levels of poverty had dropped significantly between 2001 and 2011, the drop was not more significant than in nonnodes such as Kraaifontein, Brackenfell and Gugulethu to which the data was compared, and which were not part of the URP.

Between 2001 and 2011, there were no notable improvements in the nodal areas of Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain in terms of education levels while, in fact, unemployment dropped more in non-nodal areas, than nodal ones.

The national urban renewal strategy was announced by former president Thabo Mbeki during his State of the Nation address in 2001, to focus on the most disadvantaged areas across the country.

The intention was to make targeted interventions to alleviate poverty and address under-development and socio-economic exclusion

But a review by StatsSA of the eight URP nodes across the country has revealed they did not perform significantly better than non-nodes with regard to education, economic activity, living conditions or poverty.

By 2011, the nodes were also still doing poorly in terms of access to formal dwellings and basic services compared to non-nodes. Unemployment was also still the biggest contributor to poverty in urban areas.

Statistician-general Pali Lehohla said yesterday the overall success of the URP was thus unclear.

“The nodal strategy does not seem to have differentiated between nodes and non nodes. The improvements observed in the nodes are however not specific to the nodes. Non-nodal areas improved as much,” said Lehohla.

The choice of nodes to participate in the programme was also puzzling he said, since in some municipalities there were areas which were more or equally poverty-stricken than the nodes selected.

“This highlights the significant data gaps that existed 15 years ago when trying to identify and profile poverty in the country,” said Lehohla.

In Cape Town, the poverty level of Khayelitsha which was chosen as a URP node was 18.5 percent compared to Gugulethu which was not chosen, even though poverty was at 18.3 percent.

“Poverty dropped across the entire country – nodes and non-nodes,” said Lehohla.

Still, Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha witnessed significant drops in poverty over the 10 years reviewed.

In Mitchells Plain it dropped from 11.5 percent to 0.6 percent.

A similar review was also done of the 18 rural nodes under the government’s Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Programme.

It revealed that there had been a pronounced reduction in the unemployment rate in the rural nodes.

Overall, the plight of rural and urban households had changed for the better, Stats SA said.