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1567 FRIDAY, 28 NOVEMBER 2008
1568
Households regarded as indigent
1397. Mr MMSWATHE(DA) asked the
Minister for Provincial and Local Government:
(1) (a) How many and (b) which of the
136 municipalities under Project
(2)
Consolidate had more than 50% of
their households being considered as
indigent in each of the past three
years up to the latest specified date
for which information is available;
whether he or his department has
taken any steps to improve this
situation at these municipalities; if
not, why not; if so, (a) what steps and
(b) what are the reasons for the high
percentage of households still being
considered indigent? NW2141E
The MINISTER FOR PROVINCIAL AND
LOCAL GOVERNMENT:
(1) (a) For each of the past three financial
years (until the end of March
2008, a total of 95 of the 136
project consolidate municipalities
had more than 50% of their households
being considered indigent.
The list of the 95 Municipalities
that had more than 50% of their
households being considered indigent
is attached.
(2) (a) The steps taken by dplg include:
(i) The Indigent Policy Framework
(September 2005) and the Implementation
Guidelines (June
2006) were published to assist
municipalities with appropriately
identifying indigent households
and accurately updating
indigent registers. During the
2007-08 financial year, the dplg
held workshops on these guidelines
in all provinces.
In the current financial year,
further support is being provided
to municipalities in five
registers. The identified municipalities
are in Mpumalanga,
Eastern Cape, Limpopo, North
West and KwaZulu-Natal.
(ii) Dplg published the national
framework and toolkit for local
economic development in
August 2006. This was accompanied
by co-ordination of capacity
building and funding
support to municipalities.
(iii) In addition to the above the
dplg manages the implementation
of the five year local government
strategic agenda aimed
at mobilising a governmentwide
effort to reduce poverty in
municipalities.
(b) Unemployment is one of the major
challenges in most of the municipalities
situated in deep rural
areas. Majority of these households
depend on social grants for
their survival.