The latest data from the Pietermaritzburg Agency for Community Social Action (Pacsa) shows exactly why millions of South Africans identified in a recent Stats SA poverty report are trapped in low standards of living. For black South Africans, 64.2% (around 29 million people at mid-year population estimates for 2017) live below the upper bound poverty line, Pacsa said. Combining these figures with employment statistics, Pacsa calculated that a single salary in the average black South African household needs to support 4 people. “Poverty is worsening. You cannot disconnect rising poverty levels from the economy. The economy is driving and deepening poverty,” the group said.
To read the full article published by Business Tech go to https://businesstech.co.za/news/wealth/196966/why-30-million-south-africans-are-trapped-in-poverty-even-with-a-national-minimum-wage/

Statistics South Africa’s latest Poverty Trends in South Africa Report (2017) shows that one quarter of South Africa’s population (25.2% or 13.8 million people) live below the food poverty line (R531 per capita per month); and 55.5% (30.4 million people) live below the upper bound poverty line (R1 138 per capita per month). For Black South Africans, 64.2% (approx. 29 million people) live below the upper bound poverty line. Poverty is worsening. You cannot disconnect rising poverty levels from the economy. The economy is driving and deepening poverty. Read the August 2017 Food Price Barometer here.

 

On 16 August 2012 thirty-four striking workers at the Lonmin platinum mine at Marikana, North West, were massacre by the police. Join us in remembering these workers and their struggle for justice by viewing Rehad Desai’s documentary film Miners Shot Down.
Date: Saturday, 19th August 2017
Time: 2 – 4pm
Venue: St Johns United Church, 344 Jabu Ndlovu Street, Pietermaritzburg
Admission Free – All Welcome – Invite others to join in.

 

 

 

 

 

THE story is headlined ‘PACSA says you should pay your domestic worker R8,000 a month – minimum’, so it was bound to cause a stir – especially when the story mentioned that the median salary of whites was R10 000 a month. (Psst: median ain’t average – the average white salary is more like R25 000.) But actually, PACSA’s point was about minimum wages generally, and it’s a good one. Because the current minimum wages are damn low: the average minimum wage as currently set is R2 362. (The top minimum wage for domestic workers for 2017, in the cities, is R2 422.54; the lowest is R1 562.21.)
Read the full article written by Mandi Smallhorne and published in Fin24 at http://www.fin24.com/Opinion/lets-raise-minimum-wages-to-stave-off-revolution-20170807

Statistics South Africa released its jobs statistics for the 2nd Quarter of 2017: 9.3 million South Africans are unemployed. Data from the past several years shows that the employment trajectory has not changed. The racial structure of our labour market and wage levels has not been transformed.  The expanded unemployment rate has stagnated.  The long period of excessively high levels of unemployment amongst our youth (15-24 years) appears to be solidifying and expanding into higher age cohorts (25-44 years) as people get older. We are not just failing to create jobs; we are actually shedding jobs in these, the most productive sectors of our labour force (persons aged between 25-44 years). Our economic crisis is deepening.  Read more here

 

On Saturday, 1st July 2017, we hosted our 37th Annual General Meeting, a milestone in the life of the organisation.  In her chairpersons report, Desiree Manicom, reflected on PACSA practice of process facilitation as an approach which seeks " to build sustainable social processes ‘from below’ through enhancing the agency of the poor to both meet their material needs and to ensure that they have an impact on structures of power around them.