Poverty

The United Nations (UN) and its agencies will use the 2010 World Cup to highlight Africa's slow progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of halving poverty by 2015.

UN under-secretary-general for communications and public information, Kiyo Akasaka, says that the UN is concerned that sub-Saharan countries are significantly behind schedule in realising some of the key development goals agreed to by more than 189 countries in Johannesburg in 2000.

The Black Sash welcomes Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s steady leadership and courage to forge ahead with social spending during this economic crisis. We applaud his recognition that our futures are bound together and that social solidarity is essential if we are to give meaning to our Constitutional commitment to social and economic justice for all.

The 2010 budget speech by Minister Gordhan did not specifically address financing for social development services, which is seen by many as a disappointment and in reality, it is. The other reality is that neither the NGO sector nor the Department of Social Development have made any serious and sustained effort to examine how the bid process can be used to get the best out of the Treasury nor have we managed to link the work of the sector and the department to stated government goals or the Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF).

We live in an era of crass exploitation of suffering for perceived image and commercial gain. It is a time when product or company and brand image is often being pushed on the back of communities and individuals who have fallen by the wayside of life. No ethical brand custodian, communications specialist, marketer or chief executive officer should properly be a part of this. Rather, their communications should be of an altogether deeper and more nuanced explaining of reality.

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.