THE Chinese embassy in South Africa has partnered with the country’s Department of Social Development to accelerate rural development and improve the lives of poor communities.
China has mastered the art of taking impoverished communities out of their misery through a carefully planned empowerment programme that places the poor in the driving seat of their destiny.
The People’s Republic of China has long adopted a highly-rated model known as the Targeted Poverty Alleviation Programme. This has resulted in some 800 million previously poor people being catapulted into the middle class and the country’s booming economy becoming the world’s fastest growing for over a decade in a row. The figure represents over 70% of all poverty reduced in the whole world, according to the UN. China has a population of 1.4 billion people.
In SA, the Chinese embassy has conducted poverty alleviation site visits in four provinces, namely Gauteng, Limpopo, Free State and Mpumalanga. Today, the first batch of beneficiaries of the drastic programme is a village known as Kgomo-Kgomo, situated north of Pretoria in the North West province.
Some 996 carefully identified families benefitted when Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu and China’s ambassador to SA, Amb Chen Xiaodong, disbursed what they termed “social relief of distress” of the much-needed groceries just in the nick of time for Christmas. The food hampers were valued at R400,000.
Amb Chen told the elated crowds that celebrated a Christmas that had arrived early for them, saying: “We in China believe that a society cannot be prosperous if the people do not enjoy initial prosperity. President Xi Jinping expressed during his state visit this year that the Chinese side is ready to enhance experience-sharing with the SA side and assist SA in implementing the poverty alleviation pilot village project.”
Amb Chen further quoted Nelson Mandela, saying: “Poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.”
He added: “Our cooperation will be a new symbol for China-SA friendship and cooperation.”
Minister Zulu said her department together with the Chinese embassy will roll out the full programme in earnest from the beginning of next year. She was also pleased with the meticulous manner in which the deserving cases were identified and selected.
