under development

South Africa consists of people who live out their culture in different or in similar ways. Culture includes all the various languages which people speak as their mother tongue and as a second or even a third language. It also includes the music, literature, visual arts, dance, drama, oral traditions, traditional practices which include food, fashion, architecture and heritage and the particular beliefs of a cultural group which all contribute to a unique way of life that is in certain ways distinct from that of another cultural group.

South Africa’s poor have headed government’s call to do it for themselves in the spirit of vukuzenzele. To millions of people affected by poverty and unemployment, the most obvious option to ‘do it for yourself’ is to start small business initiatives such as selling fruits and vegetables, clothes, fast food at a street corner, and operating ‘spaza’ shops.

From 16-18 October, South Africans will join millions of people across the globe in the “Stand Up, Take Action, End Poverty Now!” Campaign as they call on world leaders to eradicate extreme poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Last year almost 117 million people participated in this annual campaign, the majority from poor countries, breaking the Guinness World Record for the largest mobilisation of human beings in recorded history.

The severity of poverty worldwide prompted 189 world leaders in 2000 at the United Nations Millennium Summit to make a promise about the eradication of poverty by the year 2015. These commitments became to be known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Now with six years to go until the MDGs deadline of 2015 and for South Africa five years (as we have identified 2014 – 20 years into our democracy – as our target), we need to assess whether sufficient progress has been made in reaching the goals. This narrative paints a bleak picture.

Lise Grande, coordinator of (United Nations) UN humanitarian efforts in South Sudan, says a vast under-developed region in a grip of renewed tribal violence, is facing a massive food shortage.

Grande states that, "The southern Sudan is faced with a massive food deficit caused by a combination of late rains, high levels of insecurity and displacement, disruptions of trade and high food prices."

Human Settlements Minister, Tokyo Sexwale, has visited the Diepsloot informal settlement, where he stood in a pool of sewage when addressing residents.

Sexwale noted that, “What is at issue here is that people are living in inhuman conditions.” He described his visit to the informal settlement as “a genuine attempt to hear the problems of the people”.

We are standing on human waste. We are in Diepsloot. This is where we start our journey. We are starting a meaningful conversation with the people,” explained Sexwale.