Putting+poor+people+first,+News24,+05-06-21



=Putting 'poor people first'=

News24, 21/06/2005 13:00 - (SA)
Cape Town - Over half of South Africa's 46 million people are indigent and therefore eligible for free basic services, the department of provincial and local government told parliament on Tuesday.

"All over the world governments tend to treat poor people like dirt. What we are saying is we must put poor people first," said Patrick Flusk, deputy director-general for free basic services (FBS) at the department.

Presenting a progress report on the provision of basic services for the indigent to the provincial and local government portfolio committee, Flusk said already 61% of the 29 million poor in South Africa received free basic water and 64% received free basic electricity from municipalities.

But he said if all indigent were to receive basic services by the 2012 deadline, local governments would have to establish a controlled registry of where they lived.

"Before we can go to the department of finance and ask for money we will have to conduct an audit to find out where the indigent population is and exactly how many there are," he said.

He said while a lack of income remained the most obvious sign of poverty, poverty also included a lack of land and access to natural resources. The absence of a "climate of democracy and security necessary to enhance the capabilities of the poor and excluded" was also a form of poverty.

"The term indigent means lacking the necessities of life," Flusk explained, saying that as such, those who did not have access to sufficient water, basic sanitation, refuse removal, environmental health, basic energy, health care, housing, food and clothing were identified as indigent.

"There is an additional institutional dimension of poverty that recognised that the poorest in the nation are those who are unable to access government assistance designed to provide a social safety net because of the institutional failure," he said.

Flusk said the indigent policy had to create a safety net and must include other spheres of government.

Indigents had to have access to education, social services, public transport, health and housing, he said.

This, he said could be referred to as the "full social service package".


 * From: http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/Politics/0,,2-7-12_1724715,00.html