By Peter Kimemia

JUST over half of the 1.1 billion people projected to swell the world population over the next 25 years will be consigned to live in under-serviced urban slums. Quite a depressing thought when stated like this.

This is the future scenario unless purposeful and remedial development strategies are devised to help stem the tide of surging poverty, particularly in the urban areas of less-developed countries (LDCs). Additionally, although cities occupy only 0.4 percent of the Earth’s surface, according to the State of the World 2007: Our Urban Future, they have been identified as primary culprits in worsening pollution across the globe. 

Urban areas generate the bulk of the world’s carbon emissions. Consequently, cities have a critical and inescapable role in trying to mitigate effects of climate change. Citing the State of the World report, Darcey Rakestraw of the Worldwatch Institute points out that over 60 million people are now estimated to add to population numbers on an annual basis mostly in low-income urban settlements in developing countries.

Due to lack of basic necessities, poor sanitary conditions as well as the fickle nature of the shelters in such poor neighbourhoods, it is estimated that about 1.6 million people are needlessly losing their lives every year. Moreover, for people living in appalling sanitary conditions, education and medical care are understandably long shots with uncertain outcomes.

Arguably, apart from HIV/Aids and intermittent conflicts, urbanisation is one of the greatest challenges confronting Africa. Although it is reported that only about 35 percent of Africa’s population is urban, this figure is projected to jump to 50 percent by 2030. The 350 million people currently living in African urban areas outstrip the populations of the USA and Canada combined. What is worrying is that a situation that is already dire is likely to be stretched beyond the limit by the projected increase in population.

In South Africa, poverty maps indicate that urban areas have much less poverty than rural areas. This notion has always been predicated on the idea that urban dwellers cannot possibly be worse off than their rural counterparts because they enjoy a higher level of amenities such as electricity and better infrastructure. However, due to an increase in the influx of people from rural areas in search of jobs and better livelihoods, more and more are ending up in less than satisfactory dwellings without basic social amenities.

Severe poverty is moving to the cities and provides a serious challenge for governments and policy makers. Municipalities are evidently starting to feel the heat as sporadic and invariably violent, service delivery-related protests erupt across the country. Rather than declining in numbers and sizes, informal settlements are becoming larger and demand for housing and other attendant social services are increasing. Poor neighbourhoods that were set up as labour reserves by the apartheid system ring nearly all the major urban centres across the country. There are, however, differences in income levels within urban areas.

Many stakeholders are concerned that poverty is not being tackled quickly and effectively enough. A few years ago, a report by University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Civil Society pointed out that owing to South Africa’s apartheid past, poverty was concentrated among blacks, particularly Africans.

The report poked holes into government strategies aimed at stimulating job growth. It concluded that of the estimated eight million unemployed people, about 50 percent were simply too desperate to wait for the trickle-down effect to be brought to bear on their livelihoods. It was felt that the government-instituted social grants for pensioners, child support and disability were still inadequate and left millions of people without social security. There were indications that 11.8 million of the poorest 23.8 million South Africans lived in households that received no social assistance.

Estimates generated by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC)  have also presented a rather gloomy view of the state of poverty in South Africa. Approximately 57 percent of the people were reported to be living below the poverty line in 2001. This had been the case since 1996. It is possible that things might have improved, albeit marginally owing to the sustained modest growth of the economy and the progressive increase in social spending by government. However, the figures still bear some relevance in illuminating the nature of the challenge that faces South Africa. In the HSRC report, Limpopo and the Eastern Cape were cited as having the highest proportion of poor people with 77 percent and 72 percent of their populations living below the poverty line respectively. Western Cape had the lowest proportion in poverty (32 percent) followed by Gauteng (42 percent).   

In terms of municipalities, the majority with the lowest poverty rates are to be found in the Western Cape. With regard to the major cities, Cape Town had a poverty rate of 30 percent, Johannesburg 35 percent, Pretoria 38 percent and Durban 44 percent. Ntabankulu Municipality in the Eastern Cape had the unfortunate distinction of being the poorest as evidenced by its unprecedented poverty rate of 85 percent. Overall, the Eastern Cape hosts seven out of the 10 poorest municipalities. Limpopo and the Free State host two and one of such municipalities, respectively. Against the backdrop of the bleak observations and statistics presented above, the government-appointed Taylor Committee recommended the introduction of a basic income grant (BIG), a grant of R100 per person per month for every South African citizen, regardless of age or income level. This proposal was, however, always going to be difficult to sell to government because of the political and economic implications.

Nevertheless, a more recent report  points to the dominance of expenditure on social security over the past decade as the key poverty reduction programme by government. About 63 percent of the total expenditure set aside for poverty reduction went to social security. Undoubtedly, government has been able to provide stopgap relief for millions of South Africans.

But it is perhaps about time that alternative strategies for poverty alleviation were pursued more aggressively alongside the existing social grants. Within the context of urban poverty, urban farming or market gardening could not only improve food security but also provide an alternative livelihood for millions who currently do not have something productive to do. Other possible initiatives worth pursuing may include the development of alternative sources of energy. There are indications that certain non-governmental organisations could team up with the private sector as well as local municipalities to explore possibilities of initiating alternative energy projects. The Buffalo City Municipality may soon become one of the pioneer municipalities in this regard.

At a global level, community groups as well as local governments are reported to have taken note of the potentially perilous future and have been hard at work trying to pioneer in groundbreaking policies to address both poverty and environmental concerns.

In order to successfully address the twin challenges of poverty and environmental degradation, the State of the World report implores urban leadership to step up provision of water and sanitation services to the urban poor to bolster urban farming and improve public transport. In addition, local governments should avail more resources for information gathering on urban issues so that cities can assess development priorities.

The Local Government Transformer August/September 2007