Student C
There are many issues South Africa needs to address today in order to succeed. These issues include, amongst many others, poverty, teenage pregnancy, unemployment, crime and drug abuse. In this essay I will focus my attention on unemployment and poverty, because I believe that the eradication of poverty would solve many of the other problems associated with poverty and unemployment.
Poverty is not a static condition; individuals, households or communities may be vulnerable to poverty as a result of shocks, crises and long-term trends such as racial discrimination, gender discrimination and environmental degradation.
Poverty and unemployment are closely related. According to statistics 55% of people who are unemployed are from poverty stricken homes. Poverty stricken homes are characterized by a lack of wages or salary. Poverty among female-headed households is 60%, compared with 31% from male-headed households. This underlines the importance of targeting women in public-works and training programs.
Poverty can be defined as the inability to attain a minimal standard of living. Poverty may also be closely linked to education. Statistically the poverty rate among uneducated people is 69%, compared to 31% of people with primary, secondary or tertiary education.
Unemployment is the root of all problems especially poverty and crime. According to statistics the poverty and unemployment rate is as follows:
Poorly educated rural unemployed (28%); Poorly educated urban unemployed (13%); young unemployed with no labour market experience (36%); long-term unemployed with no labour market experience (6%); those with labour market experience and some form of education (15%) and highly educated unemployed (1%).
Unemployment leads to illegitimate activities such as drug trafficking, prostitution and petty theft. Unemployment is encouraged by gender inequality between or within cultures. Most of South African cultures educate and encourage men to work and women to be housewives who do not work and are uneducated. Academic institutions, the media and religious organizations can and should play a role in changing these cultural perceptions. It is at school level that the values and ideas, already established at home by the time the learner arrives at school, are redefined and reinforced. New values may be transmitted. Girls and boys have already acquired traditional gendered forms of behaviour, which may lead to forms of oppression. These negative behaviour patterns can be addressed and some oppressive forms of behaviour confronted by educators. Religious organizations need to openly preach against culturally oppressive perceptions and behaviours. The media, especially television, can play a big role in this regard, as children are more attracted to watching television than reading.
A declining economy may increase unemployment, as many labourers have to be retrenched. There is also an increase in the number of graduates who cannot find jobs and who do not know what to do after completing their studies. They lack the skills to start their own business. Unemployed community members also lack the same skills. They also have no knowledge of their surroundings, community needs and most importantly – community resources. Government, business institutions and the media can play an important role in teaching unemployed community members about generating an income by using resources found within the community.
In my community the most important resource is the community members.
They all have different skills, especially among some of the older generation
who can sew, knit and crochet. They just have not yet realized that
there is a need for such an enterprise. There is a Hyper Warehouse where
fabric off-cuts are given to people who request it. Sometimes it is big pieces of
fabric which can be used to make clothing. This is also a resource, which has
not been identified.
Amongst the younger generation there are a lot of possible hairdressers and
beauty therapists, who just lack the knowledge of how to open up such a
business. Yet there are a lot of banks that are willing to finance them and
companies that are willing to sponsor future entrepreneurs, especially people
from previously disadvantaged groups.
As I have mentioned there are resources in the community that do not necessitate
finances (e.g. off-cuts from Hyper Warehouse). People are yet to identify other
possible resources, for example things needed to bake a cake. One can start a
bakery by baking two cakes and making a profit then calculate the costs for the
ingredients for more cakes and banking the profit made. Obviously the
expenditures should not exceed the income otherwise one will be working at a
loss.
This was just one example used to illustrate resources. Some of the community
members could approach the Hyper Warehouse and request the off-cuts. That can
then be used to start making a few clothing pieces to generate an income. In
this manner, they can start off small, and gradually build up a business. Applying
for a loan should be considered when starting a small business, especially when it
is one’s first endeavor. Although money is important, it should not be the
determining factor for the success of a business. One must consider the
availability of resources.
Addressing the issue of poverty, government should allocate more funds from the budget to services that provide free food to underprivileged South Africans. These services need to be carefully monitored and controlled so that those people, who really are in need, gain from it. Education also plays a major role in the alleviation of poverty. Government needs to join hands with business and even church organizations, in order to speed up the delivery of quality schooling facilities.
Millions of children and young adults attend schools daily, yet the facilities available vary dramatically. For most South African learners, the guarantee of access to basic education is access to poor facilities, overcrowded classrooms and almost no learning resources. Most schooling takes place in extremely poor conditions, lacking basic needs such as toilets or tap water. Many schools do not even have textbooks or workbooks to work from.
Conditions differ widely across provinces. The more rurally based the school the more likely the facilities are to be poor. This is certainly an issue that needs to be addressed more efficiently and urgently by government.
Religious organizations can also play an important role in trying to alleviate poverty in the communities. Many of these organizations do however need to broaden the scope of their services. Many of these organizations run feeding schemes or have find raising activities to assist people within their own organizations. But what about those people not belonging to any religious organizations? What about the other needy people in the broader community?
Government, businesses and religious organizations play a major role in helping to alleviate poverty. But there is only so much that these organizations can do. Many of the answers to poverty alleviation, lies in the hands of the people in the communities. People need to change their ways of thinking and doing things. Organizations need to be formed and skills and resources in that particular community need to be identified. Aid can for example, be attained from the department of labour in the form of workshops or training sessions. People must take ownership of their communities and work together with government, business and religious organizations towards the social upliftment of the less privileged and poverty stricken in that community.
