|
The South African Human Rights Commission has called for submissions that will assist with evaluating the progress South Africa has made in realising the social and economic rights embraced by our Constitution while setting out to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The key question the SAHRC seeks to answer is: Are the MDGs leading to the progressive realization of economic and social rights in South Africa.
This submission sets out to examine whether our government has gone far enough to progressively realize the right to social security as outlined in our Constitution and as embraced by MDG 1: To Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger. It is acknowledged that the MDGs are interlinked and that, for instance, the eradication of poverty and hunger would be intricately linked to promoting gender equality and empowering women, who often bare the brunt of poverty. Therefore, the link between our submission – which relates directly to MDG 1 – must also be read in the context of the link between the first goal, the eradication of poverty and hunger, with all the MDGs.
South Africa has one of the most progressive constitutions in the world, which guarantees life, dignity and equality to all, yet we have one of the highest rates of income inequality internationally. More than half of the 48 million people living in South Africa live in poverty. Generational poverty is rife and is most often passed from grandparents to their children and then grandchildren. It is a result of the oppression and purposeful underdevelopment that characterizes the majority of our history in South Africa. Seventy four percent of the unemployed people in South Africa comprise youth – and most of these people have never worked before. The pattern of inequality continues to follow the demographics and spatial inheritance of the Bantustans under the Apartheid regime.
Our government has committed itself to eradicating poverty and ensuring a decent life for all, not least of which is the MDG target to “Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 per day. Halve, between 1995 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger” (United Nations Millennium Declaration, General Assembly Resolution 55/2, 8 September 2000).
This submission argues that South Africa is not meeting its MDG to eradicate poverty and hunger because it has not embraced the mechanisms outlined in the Constitution, specifically social security, fully. This is despite the fact that one of the most successful ways of making a qualitative difference to the lives of impoverished people quickly is to adopt a comprehensive system of social security.
 Click here to download SAHRC Joint Submission 71.94 Kb
|
