At last some good news for the North West Province in South Africa.
On Thursday, in the small village of Kgomo-Kgomo, Chinese Ambassador to South Africa, Wu Peng, the national Minister of Social Development, Sisisi Tolashe, North West MEC for Social Development, Basetsana Sussana Dantjie, Executive Mayor of the Moretele Local Municipality, Masango George Manyika, King of the Bakgatla ba Mosetlha, Kgosi Nchaupe III Makapan, and villagers from Kgomo-Kgomo participated in the official handover ceremony of a contribution from the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
The event was organised as part of China’s Global Development Initiative (GDI), to formally present to the community of Kgomo-Kgomo another tranche of resources that China had committed to providing to Kgomo-Kgomo when it was designated as the South African pilot village to implement the China/South Africa program to address the issues of poverty reduction and food security in South Africa and Africa in general.
The Global Development Initiative (GDI) is one of China’s three international initiatives programs that include a Security Initiative and a Civilization Initiative that was introduced by the Communist Party of China to guide the country’s international relations policy.
Ambassador Wu Peng highlighted that together the initiatives are expected to be implemented through China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that characterises China’s current international developmental, security and civilizational international relations. In his speech at the presentation ceremony Ambassador Wu Peng reminded the participants that the China-South Africa partnership should always focus on delivering the benefits of cooperation to people. He pointed out that poverty reduction cooperation has always been an important practical part of the partnership between the two countries in addition to many other areas of development cooperation such as providing materials, funds, complete projects and human resources training among others. Together China’s contributions are expected to make a positive socio-economic impact in the country. Ambassador Wu Peng highlighted that the Kgomo-Kgomo Poverty Reduction Model Village project is a practical way to implement the consensus reached by President Xi Jinping and President Ramaphosa and is a concrete demonstration of together building a China-South Africa community with a shared future.
Ambassador Wu Peng reiterated that China has a 70-year long history in the fight against poverty and over the past few years 800 million people from rural China were lifted out of absolute poverty. The joint South Africa-China statement by the two presidents issued during President Ramaphosa’s state visit in September 2024 while attending the Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation in promoting the Model Village Project to address poverty reduction in South Africa. Ambassador Wu Peng’s contribution on 12 December 2024 is not only an extension and consolidation of the GDI program in the Kgomo-Kgomo village in the North West Province in South Africa, but it also comes at an important time in the province’s challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality.
On Thursday, Ambassador Wu Peng presented the Kgomo-Kgomo village community with 1000 food hampers and 500 household solar energy storage systems. As the festive season approaches in the next two weeks the food hampers and solar energy storage systems will be a welcome gift for the Kgomo-Kgomo village. Ambassador Wu Peng emphasised that the poverty reduction project was part of implementing the 2021 FOCAC Ten Partnership Action Plans and reaffirmed at the September 2024 FOCAC Summit in Beijing. At the Summit President Xi Jinping announced that the Ten Partnership Action Plans will cover aspects of mutual learning among civilizations, trade prosperity, industrial chain cooperation, connectivity, development cooperation, health, agriculture and livelihood, cultural and people-to-people exchanges, green development, and common security. The main long-term aim of the three initiatives program is to guide China’s objective of assisting in the advancement of human society across the three dimensions of Development, Security and Culture to achieve a community with a shared future. During his state visit to South Africa in August 2023 President Xi Jinping and President Ramaphosa proclaimed that China-South Africa relations is entering a Golden Era. The contributions to Kgomo-Kgomo village in 2023 were also part of extending the GDI to demonstrate that as China eradicated absolute poverty over the past thirty-five years so too can South Africa begin a program to address the scourge of poverty in the country.
Over the last few months of 2024 the North West Province has been in the media for all the wrong reasons. The spotlight was on the disused Stilfontein gold mine in the province that caught the attention of South Africans as the government and the country’s security forces focused their resources on extricating trapped illegal miners from the Stilfontein gold mine. The rescue operation at Stilfontein was captured across the world’s media and focused attention on some of the key reasons for high risk illegal mining in South Africa’s rural areas. South Africa’s northern provinces is where the high rate of unemployment, poverty and food insecurity is most prevalent.
In 2016, Statistics South Africa (StasSA) released its Living Conditions Survey (LCS) of South Africa’s household survey programme that provided detailed information on the living conditions and income and expenditure patterns of households in the country. The survey revealed that 49.2% of the country’s adult population were living below the upper-bound poverty line (UBPL) with 52.0% females and 46.1% males respectively.
The Living Conditions Survey (LCS) was conducted in 2014/2015 financial year and the results were released in 2016. This was three years before the Covid-19 pandemic and its devastating aftermath that left many households living under extreme conditions of unemployment and extreme poverty. The LCS revealed that the provinces with the highest headcount of adult poverty are Limpopo (67,5%), Eastern Cape (67,3%), KwaZulu-Natal (60,7%) and North West (59,6%). For these four provinces, significantly more than half of their population was living in poverty. Although there is no specific data for Kgomo-Kgomo village the most recent North West poverty rate indicates that 59.6% of the adult population live in poverty with a provincial poverty index of 3 out of 5 and where the intensity of poverty is 42.0% including a high prevalence of malnutrition. In the 2016 LCS the poverty headcount was 8.8% of households without money for food and in the 12 months before the survey, 25.1% of households reported running out of money to buy food and 17.4% of households skipped a meal.
Although there was no recent LCS survey done after the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2024 StatsSA released the results of its latest Household Survey. The Household Survey’s data on recipients of social grants is a significant indicator of the level of poverty in the country as it shows the percentage of households dependent on social grants for survival. Social grants are coordinated by the Minister of Social Development and they are a vital safety net for households in the poorest provinces. The survey revealed that beneficiaries from social grants increased from 12.8% in 2003 to 30.9% in 2019 and rose to 39.4% in 2023 because of the introduction of the COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant. The Survey reported that social grants were the second most important source of income for 50.5% of households and, nationally it was the main source of income for more than one-fifth of all households.
A provincial breakdown of grant recipients indicates a larger percentage of households receiving grants with the Eastern Cape at 65.4%; the Free State 64.5% ; Limpopo 61.4% and, the North West Province with 55% of households living off social grants. This data is a stark reminder that poverty together with unemployment and inequality in South Africa, is one of the main challenges facing the country. While the social grants play an important role in addressing the issues of poverty and food insecurity in households in South Africa the country needs a more planned and focused approach to address the issues of poverty and food insecurity especially in the rural provinces of South Africa. More effort is required to create jobs and attract investment in the small scale agricultural sectors in provinces. China’s experience in promoting village pilot models such as the one in Kgomo-Kgomo should be extended to other provinces and must include training in innovative and sustainable agricultural practices that address food insecurity and poverty.
In concluding his speech at the handover ceremony Ambassador Wu Peng said that in achieving its own poverty reduction China also adhered to the spirit of international humanitarianism and participated actively in global poverty reduction efforts and offered assistance in many developing countries. Citing a World Bank Report, he indicated that the BRI initiative is expected to lift 7.6 million people globally out of extreme poverty, and 32 million people out of moderate poverty by 2030. At the September 2024 FOCAC Summit President Xi Jinping committed over the next three years to achieve modernization in Africa as part of the Ten Partnership Action Plans. China will not only work together with Africa but will also provide financial support to directly benefit the people of Africa. In concluding his speech Ambassador Wu Peng said that China has proved that poverty can be beaten with hard work, practical efforts, a firm will and determination. Poverty can be overcome with ideas and methods suited to local conditions. He called on the participants to speed up the construction of the Poverty Reduction Model Village Project for a future without poverty and hunger but with a common development and common prosperity.
IOL