EDITORIAL OPINION
Pandemic and poverty

THIS country and its government will stand or fall on its ability to successfully address two of our biggest problems: HIV/Aids and poverty. But it is exactly these two areas on which the government has no clear policy.

Both civil society and the government are doing something to address these issues. But there is little consistency because of the lack of policy spelling out long-term objectives. Government has thrown money at various initiatives and poverty-relief funds have been initiated in various places.

Welfare Minister Zola Skweyiya decided recently that Mpumalanga should use its poverty relief funds to bolster community and home-based care of HIV orphans. But by 2010 we will have an estimated 600000 children orphaned by HIV/Aids nationally. There is no policy to address this.

There is no policy guiding the provision of anti-retroviral drugs to HIV-positive people who cannot afford them. Even in the essential field of HIV education, the government tends to react and improvise rather than have consistent and uniform programmes in place.

And how will we deal with the impact HIV/Aids will reportedly have on the economy?

Government this year dedicated R75 million to "fighting the scourge of HIV". It has also spoken of the need to find an "African solution" to the problem. But the time to find this solution, articulate it and implement it is running out.

Poverty is inextricably linked to many of our other problems, including HIV/Aids, crime and violence. Unless we deal effectively with issues of poverty, we can never properly address these other areas.

One of our fundamental problems is unemployment, which still hovers nationally around 40 percent. Once again, there are ad hoc job creation programmes in various areas. There have been suggestions for dealing with poverty by spending several billion rand a year on some kind of dole or unemployment grant. It will be an expensive option open to abuse as the means test which will have to be applied will be complicated to implement and police.

We already have in place grants for the old, the disabled and poor children but even this "poverty relief" measure is a shaky one, particularly in the Eastern Cape where inefficiency and corruption leave people unable to rely on their grants.

A much-debated Public Works Programme (PWP) has been suggested as an alternative to the dole. It is more realistic and will offer employment at a small wage to many who need it. Apart from offering employment, it can produce bridges, clinics and schools. It can provide skills and a ladder to better-paid jobs in the private sector. This sort of programme worked wonders in the Tsolo/Qumbu area. But PWPs require planning, commitment and careful management. There is a shortage of these skills and already the miracle of the PWP in Tsolo/Qumbu is reportedly wearing off.

Government must come up with coherent policies on poverty and HIV/Aids or we will be faced with having to inadequately manage the many crises which continue to come our way.