Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Thembi Nkadimeng said there were increasing signs of urban poverty, as she noted that migration has exceeded the government’s projections and budgets.
Nkadimeng spoke to the media on the sidelines of the African National Congress’s (ANC) National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Boksburg.
She was speaking in her capacity as chair of the ANC’s Subcommittee on Legislature and Governance.
Just this week, results of the 2022 Census showed that over 2 million people living in South Africa were not born in the country, while around 400,000 moved to Gauteng over the last decade.
Nkadimeng said that even when the government meets its housing or service delivery targets based on past planning, it now comes up short due to the movement of people into the big cities and metros.
“Contrary to what you heard, for example in our 10/15-year review of local government in the past, the indication of urban poverty was very minimal but now you come to the City of Johannesburg, you see there are more and increasing signs of urban poverty, which means the planning of the cities and ourselves needs to adjust and be different.”
However, the ANC said that while South Africa is grappling with ongoing service delivery issues, the census shows that the country has come a long way.
The census helped to assess the country’s demographics through economic and social data gathered over time.
Nkadimeng said that the picture painted by the census was not so bleak.
“We may be having difficulties, but life is not the same as it was in 1994. Municipalities may be having difficulty in administration and governance, but we’ve really moved in ensuring [service delivery] even in rural areas where there was no refuse collection.”
-EWN
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