Hon Speaker, hon members, malibongwe! [Interjections.] The antipoverty programme is a targeted intervention by government to fight poverty through the delivery of services to poor profiled households in identified wards, identifying change agents who can help those poor households move out of extreme poverty, and improving intergovernmental co-operation and co-ordination of service delivery. The programme has yielded many positive results countrywide, many of which I have mentioned in this House. These positive results are thanks to this intergovernmental co-ordination of service delivery and working with communities.
I would like to bring some examples to your attention. Following our visit to the Greater Taung Municipality in 2011, a joint, collaborative effort has been launched between the North-West provincial department of agriculture and rural development, the Agricultural Research Council and Haldor Topse, a private firm in Denmark involved in research, sales, technology and plant design as well as catalyst production, to position Taung Agricultural College as a centre of excellence in irrigation technology. In this way, it ensures that communities in Taung benefit and are able to produce food to improve their socioeconomic status.
On another visit to Lutshaya in Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape last year and early this year, we were able to attract support from the private sector, particularly with regard to support in schools and the upgrading of the local clinic. As we speak, there is a commitment to continue with the renovation of infrastructure in that area.
Another example of a positive result I wish to bring to your attention is that of government, at all levels, working with the community of Zwide in the Eastern Cape province, in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality. There, the youth is trained to build houses and they are, in fact, busy building houses. They are supervised by a private company. So, the replacement of shacks with brick and mortar houses is progressing fairly well in that area.
Of course, one of the lessons that are most inspiring is to see poor communities rallying to support each other. In Zwide we came across a 94- year-old man who is a double amputee, uTat'Disemba Dyafta, in Ward 25. He is confined to a wheelchair, but neighbours in the same street took up his plight with the local municipality and harangued the local councillor to ensure that his house, which was in a dilapidated state, was renovated. When we were there, people from Joshua Doore had also volunteered to upgrade the furniture inside that house. One of the young girls who had just passed Grade 12 last year and has not been able to study any further, due to a lack of resources, indicated to us that she takes responsibility for looking after this old man, providing meals and - because he is a diabetic -ensuring that ... [Time expired.]