Thank you, hon Chair. It is an open secret that hundreds of South Africans die daily due to hunger, unemployment, poverty, disease, and inequality, even among those who purport to be in the working class. These, I must say, are some of the momentous challenges we face as a country. To look into these challenges, let us focus on the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme, CRDP.
When the department implemented the first pilot project of the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme at Greater Giyani, Muyexe, the intention was to use the initiative as a benchmark for the whole country. It was implemented without a formal budget in the interests of accelerating delivery and reinventing rural economies to alleviate poverty and food insecurity. It took more than eight months to pilot rural infrastructure at Muyexe.
Some important key CRDP priority areas that were not in the pilot project were: aggressive implementation of land reform policies; stimulating production with a view to contributing to food security; improving rurallivelihoods and food security; and revitalisation of ruraltowns. The end is that Muyexe as a pilot project is still incomplete. Twenty per cent of the identified projects are still outstanding. The speed of the CRDP roll-out has become slower and less intense. These are the reasons why researchers, for example Judith February of Idasa, and the Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program, agreed on zero-rating the department for its performance in 2011.
Cope agrees with this rating because the majority of rural people are still dependent on social grants to alleviate poverty, something which many among us do not know, because, I must say, we have not done enough ourselves - we have not groomed them properly.
The second issue is poverty alleviation. We agree with the Minister of Social Development ... [Interjections.] I emphasise that we agree with the Minister of Social Development, Bathabile Dlamini, that grants are not sustainable. We would also like to disagree with Ms Lakela Kaunda, Deputy Director-General in the Presidency, that grants are the most effective and widespread poverty alleviation mechanisms. One of the reasons is that grant beneficiaries who qualify for grants do not receive them.
Despite ... [Interjections.] Maybe I must check with my "potskuurder" [pot scourer] at home. [Laughter.] Despite the more than 300% increase in grant beneficiaries, according to the Institute of Race Relations, 47,4% of Africans are still living in households with incomes below the poverty line. This is a huge decline when compared to the 49,4% of 1996. The greatest percentage of those are in the rural areas.
We, as a matter of principle, support the provision of social relief grants because government is unable to create decent jobs. [Interjections.]