Chair, Cabinet at its June 2019 deliberations endorsed the 25 Year Review Report as being a fair reflection of the achievements and challenges the democratic government and our have experienced since 1994. The departure point of the 25 Year Review Report is that the apartheid system subjected black people and black women in particular to enumerable forms of discrimination and bias. Rural people and youth were marginalised and women bore the brunt of poverty.
The 25 Year Review Report found that multi dimensional poverty measured in terms of composite indicators for health, education, standard of living and economic
activity has decreased. This is because government programmes over the past 25 years have protected millions of South Africans against the devastating impact of poverty through social grants and free basic services amongst others. However, when measured in terms of the financial dimensions, poverty levels have increased and remained inconsistent with government stated objectives. The face of poverty in South Africa is still black and female. This has remained one of the greatest development challenges in South Africa after 1994.
At the launch of the 25 Year Review Report on the 8th of November 2019, the President of our country accentuated the existed seamless connection between recommendations made in the 25 Year Review Report and the seven national government priorities for 2019-2024 as articulated earlier. These priorities are embodied and embedded in the Medium Term Strategic Framework for 2019-2024, which will inform the work of government and nongovernment actors alike for the five years.
Having provided political leadership and technical support for the production of both the 25 Year Review
Report and the Medium Term Strategic Framework for 2019- 2024, the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation's role is to ensure implementation of the latter by all key role players, state and non-state. This will be achieved through cascading the Medium Term Strategic Framework into the strategic and annual performance plans of government departments as well as social's compacts with non-state actors to achieve the eradication of poverty, unemployment and inequality. Thank you, Chair.