Focus on poverty alleviation programme in Eastern Cape

The Eastern Cape is one of South Africa's poorest provinces, with a consistently higher unemployment rate than the national average and a relatively large rural population. These settlements are often cut off from accessing social services due to the lack of adequate roads, a hangover of apartheid provincial planning. But a new public works project, the Vukuzakhe Roads Maintenance Programme, is set to make a difference to the lives of rural people. The initiative aims to employ the most vulnerable members of communities to maintain roads for a set monthly sum, thereby improving access to remote communities and helping to tackle rampant poverty. HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT A United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) provincial profile on the Eastern Cape states that in 2001 "out of all South Africans not economically active, 18 percent are from the Eastern Cape, which is a higher proportion than its [percentage of the national] population." According to the report, the population of the Eastern Cape in 2001 was 7 million. However, provincial government statistics given to IRIN this week show a shrinkage of the population to 6.3 million. Yet the official unemployment statistics for the Eastern Cape provided by Statistics South Africa indicate that the unemployment rate has increased despite the contraction in population. According to the latest statistics, compiled in the last quarter of 2002, the official unemployment rate was 32.5 percent - an estimated 594,000 people who should be economically active. The national official unemployment average is 30.5 percent or 4.8 million people. KILLING TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE The Vukuzakhe Roads Maintenance Programme was launched last year in the remote town of Willowvale by Eastern Cape Premier Makhenkesi Stofile, and roads and public works MEC Gloria Barry. Andile Fekisi, roads and public works spokesman, told IRIN the department supplied equipment such as orange warning cones, wheelbarrows, pickaxes, shovels and machetes to people selected to participate in the project. Each household was allocated a kilometre of road for which they were responsible. They are paid R400 (about US $50) per month. The household is then responsible for cutting the grass along the road, filling potholes and cleaning and maintaining the drainage system. When IRIN visited Willowvale, the impact of the public works project on the impoverished community was evident. Kolile Kostile, a public works official involved in the programme from the outset, explained: "We have now reached 540 households in Willowvale. All the people that were employed [by the project] were not working, some had never worked [in the formal sector]. "During the selection process the principle was that if there was someone in a household working, or getting a government grant, they did not qualify for this programme. We focussed on the very people who had nothing. Some had no work experience, some were old, some were very young. "Female-headed households were given preference. The process of selection was very transparent, we convened community meetings, with councillors, and it was the community themselves that selected these people [to participate in the programme]," Kostile explained. The selection process worked on the basis that the community were themselves best-placed to know who among them was most in need. "In one meeting we had a headman here who called on one of his relatives [to be included in the project], claiming he was poor. The people said 'no in that family so and so is working'. Because the people know each other, we are able to target the most vulnerable of the community," he noted. One of the objectives of the project was to ensure that people received identity documents (IDs), as many in rural areas do not have these important documents, without which they are unable to access social grants, apply for jobs or open bank accounts. Those who have received new IDs have had bank accounts opened for them. "We hope this will also allow them to save," Kostile added. Apart from the R400 monthly payment, "the department contributes R20 [about US $2.50) and the member contributes R20 - that R40 [about US $5] goes into a savings scheme" every month, Kostile said. The selection process began in July and the project got off the ground in September last year. "They work only two days a week - this means they can spend the other days looking after their [vegetable] gardens. In order for them to maintain their gardens the council gives them inputs (seedlings, etc)," he added. Fekisi said one of the requirements of the programme was that people started vegetable gardens. It was hoped that these gardens would allow people greater self-sufficiency. A local councillor, Nomzi Juta, said the council began distributing agricultural inputs to the community in July. Kostile added: "the first time we did a payment here, some people cried. They said they had never handled money of their own. It was very touching". According to Fekisi, the programme had initially been given a budget of R1.4 million, which has since ballooned to R7 million. "We now have similar programmes in five district municipalities," he said. About 2,000 households throughout the province were currently participating. DIRECT IMPACT ON POVERTY On the gravel road from Willowvale to Msengeni IRIN spoke to some of the lengthmen maintaining their stretch of road. Zinyusile Malemlela, who knows he was born in December 1948 but not the exact date, told IRIN he had been a post office worker for many years before restructuring cost him his job three years ago. His tiny retrenchment package was enough to keep him going for a while, as both his wife and children had passed away, but that finally ran out and he was dependent on the goodwill of his sister to survive. "My sister lives in a nearby village and she would give me food. Sometimes I would eat supper there," said Malemlela. This was his only means of support until the Vukuzakhe project came along. The roughly 54-year-old was selected by his community as someone in desperate need of an income. A kilometre further down the road, IRIN found Nolast Sibeko, a 53-year-old wife and mother of four, hard at work.

Thanks to the project, Sibeko is able to provide for her children

Like Malemlela, Sibeko has been working on her kilometre of road since September last year. "Before that I used to get some [piece work] from different households, cutting grass and plastering homes with mud. I have four children and a husband. My husband has not been working, I am the sole breadwinner. My children are all school ages: one was born in 1985, another in 1988, one in 1990 and the last in 2000," she explained. "Thanks to this programme I have been able to take my kids to standard 8 [grade 10], without it I would not have been able to send them to school. My children would have to find work to survive," Sibeko said. Fekisi noted the cyclical nature of poverty, underlining that education was a means for children to escape the poverty of their forefathers. Sibeko now has her own vegetable garden, thanks to inputs from the council. She proudly told IRIN that she grows maize, spinach and cabbage. "I feel very happy, because I am working," she said, adding that she was tired of life without a regular source of income. Sibeko told IRIN that people in her community involved in the programme believed it was "a very good thing". Her only concern was that she had no kit for winter - with temperatures beginning to drop, it would become difficult to work the roads in the cold. Kostile said in the event that a contractor fell ill, any member of that family could take his or her place maintaining their kilometre of road - this was the rationale behind targeting households. Regarding disciplinary procedures, each contractor signed a 12 month contract. "If we find that the work is not being done satisfactorily then the overseer speaks to the person and notes it. If all attempts [to get the work done] fail, we would have no choice but to terminate the contract. But we have had no such case yet," he commented. The people benefiting from the programme were "just too enthusiastic" about the programme to throw away their only means of income, Fekisi explained.