Hon Speaker, hon members, the migrant labour system has certainly contributed to deepening rural poverty and has had dire consequences for the dependants of the migrant workers, notably women and children. Some of the consequences include broken families, limited access to education opportunities for their children and lack of work opportunities for the women, who are often solely dependent on remittances from men working in towns and cities. In addition, various academic studies have pointed out that postapartheid migration patterns have their roots in the homeland system of the apartheid government, which ensured that virtually no development took place in regions where the majority of our people were restricted.
Studies also show that migration deprives local communities of human capital as people of working age leave their communities to work in other areas, especially in the mining towns. The health consequences are also dire, as those who migrate have historically been confined to single-sex hostels and, more recently, to poorly serviced informal settlements where the risk of HIV infections is very high.
Government's response to rural poverty is multipronged and consists of the Infrastructure Development, Comprehensive Rural Development and War on Poverty programmes.
I wish to draw the hon member's attention to the Presidential Infrastructure Co-ordinating Commission, PICC, which has set itself the task to transform the economic geography of South Africa through 18 strategic infrastructure projects. This will be achieved through the building of socioeconomic infrastructure in rural communities and former homeland areas. This infrastructure will give our people access to social and economic amenities that are necessary to facilitate the creation of sustainable jobs and viable rural communities. In addition, hon Minister Nkwinti has said in this House that various projects under the Comprehensive Rural Development programme are being accelerated with the view to creating sustainable livelihoods for rural communities.
The War on Poverty programme was created to accelerate service delivery by identifying beneficiaries who are entitled to receive the existing services from government, but for some reason or another are not. Thus, the aim of the War on Poverty programme is to address service delivery gaps where an existing government service does not reach the beneficiary and, therefore, to facilitate the necessary link to the required service. In short, the combination of all these interventions should result in the reduction of rural poverty and create the conditions whereby people in rural areas migrate out of choice, and not out of necessity. I thank you for your attention. [Applause.]