Chairperson, on 18 July, Prof Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh delivered an inspiring lecture in honour of former President Nelson Mandela. One of the profound points that he made was that charity freezes poverty. I thought that was a very profound statement, which meant that, instead of giving people charity, we should all be looking at ways of empowering them to be able to help themselves.
This professor formed the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh to assist women. To date, it has about 8 million women who benefit form it. These women also own and control the bank. So, he was saying we have the potential as a country to condemn poverty to the museum. He also challenged us by saying we can wipe poverty out completely in this country in the next 20 years if we adopt the attitude that for every problem we find a solution, particularly with regard to poverty.
So, social grants are really not sustainable and desirable in the long term, except for the aged and those who are completely incapacitated. With regard to the rest of the sections of our people who are beneficiaries of social grants, we should really find a way of empowering them in our approach so that the number of social grant recipients can decrease instead of increase. We should really strive to take it in that direction. Of course, when we go through difficult times such as recessions, job cutbacks and an increase in numbers of the unemployed, as government we have to be in a position to give relief to those who are in dire need. In the long term the correct approach is to eliminate reliance on social grants, particularly for able-bodied people. Thank you.