New poverty hearings planned

Thu, 12 Jun 2008

Civil society groups and the SA Human Rights Commission are planning to hold poverty hearings throughout the country, Archbishop Njogonkulu Ndungane said on Wednesday.

"The idea is to use people's own voices to carry the issues to the corridors of power," he said in a statement.

The hearings, planned to kick off in the Western Cape at the beginning of July, would be a follow-up to the 1998 'Speak Out on Poverty' hearings organised by the SAHRC and NGOs.

Ndungane, former head of the Anglican church in southern Africa, is founder of African Monitor, a body set up to promote development on the continent.

He said what emerged from the 1998 hearings was that poverty was about an ongoing struggle with starvation, lack of access to shelter, services, income and jobs.

Today, evidence suggested that the number of people living in poverty had increased.

This had prompted the tenth anniversary poverty hearings.

"This initiative is intended to serve as much-needed feedback on the 1998 hearings," he said.

"We feel that it is important for us to assess from the poor themselves the actions that have been taken to address their plight, actions that they have taken to improve their lives and their awareness of economic and social rights as enshrined in the Constitution.

"The hearings will therefore provide a rich opportunity to hear people speak for themselves and present solutions to the challenges they face.

"At the end of the day we wish to see a prioritisation of poor people's issues and a move from talk to action as far as policy formulation and implementation are concerned."