By Ebi Kesiena
South Africa’s Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Thembi Nkadimeng has disclosed that there is an increasing sign of urban poverty, adding that migration has exceeded government’s projections and budgets.
Nkadimeng noted this while speaking to the media on the sidelines of the African National Congress’s (ANC) National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Boksburg.
Speaking in her capacity as chairperson of the ANC’s Legislature and Governance Subcommittee, she said 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.
According to Nkadimeng, governments now fall short even when they meet their housing or service delivery targets due to the movement of people into large 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 however maintained 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.”
