Hon speaker, hon members, and hon Mulder, this government is engaged in a war on poverty in our country regardless of the race or religion of the people affected. The way the war on poverty works is that the poorest wards in our country have been identified using Statistics SA's Provincial Poverty Index. Since the unit of intervention is the household, every household and family that lives in these targeted poor wards across South Africa is thus eligible for all government service interventions, irrespective of race, religion, social or political persuasion.
So, to reiterate, government attends to the needs of all its citizens regardless of their race. Poor white people are as entitled to government services as any other race group of our nation. Basic services are a constitutional right and the war on poverty uses a needs-based approach to service delivery co-ordination.
Government actively discourages a return to the old dispensation where skin colour was the sole determinant of access to social services, as well as the quality thereof. As President Jacob Zuma said when visiting the poor white community of Bethlehem earlier this year, this government is determined to fight and eradicate poverty in every community and every corner of this society. Our efforts in this regard will not be driven by considerations of race, colour or creed. It is therefore important that the fight to eradicate poverty becomes not just a government fight. It should be a fight in which South Africans from all walks of life collectively come together to wage and win this war. I thank you.