Since 1994, government has opened up a new frontier in our struggle for total liberation. We have declared war on poverty and mobilized resources to eradicate conditions that give rise to poverty. Before the 1994 democratic break through, successive apartheid regimes confined the people of Lambasi to the periphery of development. Inevitably this marginalisation subjected the poorest of the poor to grinding poverty, disease, lack of health care facilities, food insecurity, lack of education and many other evils.
Poverty is a product of our history.
It is not a natural phenomenon. It was imposed by successive social, political and military forces, which spared little in their wake. Government has spoken out repeatedly against these historical inequalities. We have continued to rebel against these inequalities even as they present themselves as being so steeped in history that they could not be changed. We shall not relax our efforts to reverse the ravaging consequences of history, which continue to afflict our people.