Government’s greatest hurdle
In post-apartheid South Africa, fighting the legacy of poverty and under-development has always been a central theme of government.
Poverty is a key development challenge in social, economic and political terms; not only in South Africa.
This was flagged in the Reconstruction and Development Plan (RDP) of 1994 and reiterated in the National Development Plan (NDP) published in 2011.
The guiding objective of the NDP is the elimination of poverty and the reduction in inequality.
The Living Conditions Survey (LCS) and the Income and Expenditure Survey (IES) conducted by Stats SA are the two primary contributors toward profiling and monitoring poverty and inequality over time.
These two surveys are fundamental components to the survey programme of any statistical agency.
They are the leading tools for the measurement of absolute poverty and inequality and they are an extremely important building block for the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to stay current with the changing spending and consumption patterns of the country.
Interesting fact: Females are more impoverished than males in South Africa, with poverty headcount of 58,6% as compared to 54,9% for males.
In the Census done in 2011, Westbury ward 82 was for individual income was:
In the Census done in 2011, Riverlea ward 68 for individual income was:
