Journal of Social Development in Africa (1996), 11,2,107-118 
Book Reviews 
South Africa: Wealth, Poverty and Reconstruction, edited by Lual A Deng & 
Elling N Tjonneland, Chr Michelsen Institute in cooperation with the Centre for 
South African Studies, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, 1996, ISBN: 
82-90584-20-2 (p/b) 207pp, Price N/K. 
This book attempts to do one thing that previous research in this field may not have 
seriously attempted to do and that is: present a picture of poverty among all the 
peoples of South Africa, including the blacks. It is comprised of seven papers 
written by a group of South African and non-South African researchers. In general, 
papers present an overview and analysis of poverty in South Africa and the efforts 
to alleviate and reduce poverty through the reconstruction and development 
programme. It also offers lessons and experiences from poverty reduction and 
poverty-oriented aid in sub-Saharan Africa. 
The overview paper by Elling N Tjonneland discusses study projects undertaken 
by the Southern African Labour and Development Research Unit (S ALDRU) 
at the University of Cape Town's School of Economics; The Project for Statistics 
on Living Standards and Development; and Household Survey. These projects and 
surveys present a comprehensive statistical analysis of poverty in South Africa. 
The author brings up very important facts that: about a third of all households, or 
half the population, can be classified as poor, and that the poor are overwhelmingly 
African, living in rural areas, are women and others living in female-headed 
households. The article further points out that the gap between the rich and the poor 
has been growing; the disparity between the racial groups is still large; and that the 
foreign migrants are an unknown factor in the poverty profile of the country. On 
the reduction of poverty, the article identifies the Reconstruction and Development 
Programme (RDP) as the main instrument of the (Government of National Unity 
(GNU). It lists achievements such as the school feeding programme which 
provides free mid-days meals for more than 6 million children; free health care for 
pregnant women and infants; affordable water supply schemes; affordable homes 
for up to 300,000 families in rural areas; and affordable electricity supply for many 
families in the urban area. It does, however, point out that the RDP programme has 
not done enough to alleviate poverty among the majority of the people, and 
concludes that the success of poverty alleviation programmes will depend upon a 
well-performing economy; and job creation and income-generating opportunities. 
Revisiting the surveys mentioned in the overview paper by Ell ing N Tjonneland, 
Pundy Pillay's paper analyses the poverty situation in South Africa by using 
statistical data and graphical representations. Pillay uses six poverty indicators of:
108 Book Reviews 
Expenditure levels; Education; A ccess to services; Access to and use of rural land; 
Labour market activity and inactivity; and Income distribution, to demonstrate the 
pattern of poverty along the lines of location of residence, province; race; 
household structure; gender and age; and employment and income. 
Peter le Roux dwells substantially on the RDP and its capability to deal with 
poverty alleviation. The paper starts by pointing out that the RDP White Paper 
should have set alleviation of poverty as an unambiguous priority, which it did not. 
Although uprooting of poverty is said to be first priority of the RDP, it is clearly 
not the only goal. There are other related priorities such as: delivery of the social 
and physical infrustructural development; the restructuring of the economy; and 
the development of human resources across the board. These are sometimes 
regarded as benefitting more the relatively better-off groups and classes than 
alleviating poverty among the very poor. No wonder the RDP base document has 
been criticised by some experts for not being an integrated plan of action, but rather 
a pre-election shopping list of goals the ANC had hoped to attain once it took over 
government. The paper further discusses the RDP policies to deal with poverty 
under the subheadings of: Employment generating growth; Provision of Basic 
Needs; Social old age pensions; and Mother and child maintenance grants. The 
last section of the article discusses the RDP delivery and anti-poverty programme, 
and sets out the following strategies: Affirmative action in favour of the poor; 
Restructuring of the poor; Establishing appropriate delivery institutions; Spending 
the RDP funds wisely; and the Existence of a sustainable economic growth and 
development. 
Bill Davies looks at poverty disparities in the Eastern Cape Province. The 
chapter considers four aspects of the situation, namely: overall provincial context 
in terms of population distribution; discrepancies between the province and the 
country as a whole; some indicators of internal disparities within the province; and 
finally reference is made to some specific poverty-alleviation measures in the 
province. It is a well-presented chapter with statistical information from various 
studies being extensively used. 
The next chapter in the book is about illegal immigrants in South Africa. The 
objective of the chapter is three-fold: to describe the condition under which illegal 
immigrants live, and what is being done to alleviate their lot; to expose the 
interface/linkage between their presence in the country and the poverty of native 
South Africans; and to propose strategics to alleviate their problem. The chapter 
presents a comprehensive discussion of the issues in historical perspective in 
southern Africa. Various approaches have been put forward to manage mass 
migrations; and the chapter concludes with some policy recommendations. 
The last two chapters discuss poverty in relation to sub-Saharan Africa. The first 
of the two discusses poverty-oriented aid and the second discusses poverty
Book Reviews 109 
reduction: lessons from sub-Saharan Africa. Both papers have elaborate discussions 
on Structural Adjustment Programmes and how these have turned out to be 
"poverty-generating" rather than "poverty alleviating." 
This collection of papers is a very important study in the subject of poverty and 
poverty alleviation in South Africa specifically, and in the southern Africa region 
in general. The issues discussed have been well-handled and it will add a worth of 
background information to future studies on the subject. However, its handling of 
the RDP as the main strategy for the alleviation of poverty in South Africa has 
rendered the whole work rather short-sighted. Poverty is a long-standing problem 
in southern Africa, and it is high time studies of combating it came with long-term 
and sustainable strategies which will not only be seen to alleviate poverty, but also 
lessen tremendously the dependence of the poor countries on donor agencies. 
Reviewed by Bright Nkhata, SAPES Trust, P O Box MP111, Mount Pleasant, 
Harare. 
Panos Media Briefing No 16 (October 1995) The Internet and the South: Superhighway 
or Dirt-track?, Panos Institute, 9 White Lion Street, London Nl 9PD, 
UK, Fax: 071-278-0345, email: panoslondon@gn.apc.org 
In September last year I was privileged to be able to "listen in" on one of the earliest 
"global network academies" - a Virtual Seminar in Global Political Economy. The 
GPE as it is known, was initiated by a Canadian professor now resident in the 
United States, and linked students and staff in universities in those two countries 
as well as such widely dispersed locations as Britain, Mexico, Brazil, Japan - and 
Zimbabwe. The second GPE dealt with Global Cities and Social Movements: an 
exploration of theories and cases, presumably looking toward this year's Habitat 
II Conference. Through the Internet participants were able to acquire readings, 
organise tutorial groups and also enter into a wider debate with the whole GPE 
seminar. 
Web Review (October 13-26, 1995) Special Issue on the Digital Academy, 
called this Virtual Seminar the "most ambitious of these experiments... and the 
most significant in the long term....the first step towards a university without 
walls." 
Two months later I had to unsubscribe. 
Why withdraw from such a truly ground-breaking experiment? Firstly, I was 
unable to subscribe to the full seminar, as my institution cannot afford to pay the 
fees for access to the Internet (we use the "NGO" Email system, ESANET) (]). 
(1) For a description of this system, see S ARDC's review of this Panos Briefing 
dated 9 April 1996.