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Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty

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Newsletter 87- Poor and deprived -2 September 2010

This week’s newsletter gives a poverty overview of the eight municipalities covered by the Municipal Outreach Project. Two poverty indicators are referred to here (municipality breakdown only available for 2007); these are the poverty rate and the deprivation index. The review shows that there is a correlation between the poverty rate and the deprivation index in all the municipalities.
  • Statistics South Africa defines the poverty rate as the proportion of households in a municipality that had a monthly income below R800 in 2007. However, the Institute is aware of other poverty rate measures, but for the purpose of this newsletter the above definition will be uses.
  •  The deprivation index is a composite measure derived from a set of demographics and socio-economic variables. These include type of housing, access to water, electricity, and sanitation among other services. It is on a scale between one and five, whereby five indicates the highest level of deprivation in a municipality.
In 2007 the Capricorn District Municipality (Polokwane) had a poverty rate of 61% and a deprivation index of 3.4, while the Motheo District Municipality (Bloemfontein) had a poverty rate of 51% and a deprivation index of 2.1.
The City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality’s (East Rand) poverty rate was 37% while the deprivation index was 1.8.
The eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality (Durban) and the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality (Port Elizabeth) both had a poverty rate of 41% .The deprivation indices was 1.8 and 1.6 respectively.
In the City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (East Rand) the poverty rate was 37% and the deprivation index was 1.8, while the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality had a poverty rate of 32% and a deprivation index of 1.6.
The Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality (Pretoria) had a poverty rate of 28% and a deprivation index of 1.9. The City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality had a poverty rate of 32% and a deprivation index of 1.6.
Capricorn had both the highest poverty rate and highest deprivation rating on the index. On the other, Cape Town had the lowest poverty rate and deprivation rating on the index. There is a clear correlation between poverty rate and the deprivation index; a deprived municipality is likely to be a ‘poor’ municipality.
-Nachi Majoe
by nmajoe — last modified 2010-09-10 11:02
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