/ MEDIA STATEMENT / The content on this page is not written by Polity.org.za, but is supplied by third parties. This content does not constitute news reporting by Polity.org.za.

A new life to a poverty-stricken village of 42 households has been injected through a “one household one food garden” War on Poverty Campaign by Eastern Cape provincial government.

Coordinated by Stakeholder Partnership and Development Directore located within the Department of Social Development and Special Programmes, 37 active households of Maladini village in Qumbu in the OR Tambo District received fencing and food gardening material. Each household received seedlings, fruit trees, a water tank, a wheeelbarrow, a fork space, a spade, a watering can and fencing material, including wire and poles.

Ward Councillor Mathe (centre) welcomes fencing his community received from government, with community members watching from behind

Beneficiary Ntombokqala Ntshitshi believes that the delivery will improve socio-economic life of Maladini and will curb violent activities that marred the village in recent years. Ntshitshi and her six siblings depend on husband’s pension grant. “Our children will have something positive to do. These food gardens will teach them how to produce nutritious food and encourage them to eat healthy,” she said. “I thank the government for elevating our village out of poverty.”

This delivery was done at Maladini Primary School early in September where the same delivery items were handed over to the school for its own food gardening, a delivery by the Department of Education.

The delivery is the fruits of the Provincial Integrated Anti-Poverty Strategy, a document that seeks to ensure coordination and integration of all poverty interventions by provincial departments. The strategy was launched by Premier Noxolo Kiviet in March this year. At the centre of the Strategy is people’s empowerment for their own development, mobilisation and conscientisation and strengthening of public private partnerships. It seeks to promote social inclusion, invest in human capital, to ensure income security and creation of economic opportunities and jobs, amongst its many objectives. Food gardening is an initiative yielded through food security, one of flagship pillars of the Strategy.

Maladini is one of the two identified poverty sites in OR Tambo, with Bolana village in Port St Johns completing the number. The two form part of the 16 pilot sites identified across the Province, two from each district including the two Metros. Similar initiatives have started in Chris Hani’s KwaHala village pilot site, Bolani, Joe Gqabi’ Upper Sinxako and Siqhungqwini villages, Amathole’s Inkanga village, Buffalo City’s Ngqinisa village and Alfred Nzo’s Mandileni and KwaNgutyana villages. Public Private Partnership by the Department, National Development Agency (NDA), ICATU, Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform, Department of Education, Department of Health and local municipalities has been displayed in the implementation of these programmes.