‘ANC lacks plan to eradicate poverty’

THE RECENT report from Statistics SA on poverty trends in South Africa clearly shows that the ANCled Northern Cape administration lacks a coherent, practical plan to eradicate poverty, the DA in the Province has stated.

Advocate Boitumelo Babuseng, DA provincial spokesperson for Economic Affairs, said yesterday in response to the report on Poverty Trends in South Africa that, with poverty gap increasing in the Province from 26 percent in 2011 to 28 percent in 2015, it was the women and children who were suffering the most.

Economy

“With the economy now in the grip of a recession, the levels of poverty in the Province are likely to increase as there is no clear leadership from the provincial administration on the issue,” Babuseng said.

He added that it was common cause that the public funds meant for service delivery were “frequently misused or misappropriated”.

“The majority of economic development schemes in the Province are aimed at the enrichment of the politically-connected elite rather than the true empowerment of emerging entrepreneurs,” Babuseng added.

“While unemployment and poverty skyrocket, the provincial administration cannot even renew its Provincial Growth and Development Strategy.”

Babuseng stated further that it was clear that the ANC could no longer bring any hope of economic opportunity to those who needed it most.