Cape Town - A study that will map out the extent of poverty and inequality at a ward level in a municipality is to get under way soon.
The research is a project of the Law Trust Chair in Social Justice at the University of Stellenbosch and is being piloted in the Swartland Local Municipality.
It is also expected to provide data on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, social and economic relief sought by households and how the need was met.
Project manager from the Social Justice Unit, Wendy Stone, said the study also formed part of the Social Justice M-Plan which sought to quantify the extent of poverty and inequality and would communicate this by way of a map to assist policymakers to use the disaggregated data for more "inclusive and impact" conscious policy outcomes.
Former statistician-general Pali Lehohla, who is involved in the study, described the project as a "huge task", the outcomes of which would help change how local governments would think of how better to devise policies that would help reduce poverty and inequality.
"It will also help citizens to hold those in power accountable for their actions. If, for instance, municipalities deprive citizens of certain things, they need to think of what those consequences would be as well as ways to remedy the impact of such decisions," Lehohla said.
According to its website, the Swartland municipality is divided into 12 wards and consists of farmlands.
It covers areas including Darling, Malmesbury, Riebeek Kasteel, Riebeek West, Chatsworth, Riverlands and Abbotsdale.
As the coronavirus pandemic challenged the health-care system and hobbled the economy countrywide, many communities were left to fend for themselves or received some relief aid from the government and non-governmental organisations.
Lehohla said the study in the Swartland would delve into issues such as who applied for relief, what relief was sought and who was left behind.
"The study will test policies taken and what impacts of those would be and what the compensation would be in the case of inefficiencies. The key issue is to understand these inequalities and consequences in policy formulation," Lehohla added.
A team of statisticians was ready to go into the field to collect the data once the necessary logistics were concluded, according to Lehohla.
He said although the team was hoping to get the data "in the eye of the storm" when Covid-19 was at its peak in South Africa, there was still hope much relevant information would still be harvested.
The outcomes of the study would help other municipalities countrywide at ward level, taking into account their unique situations Lehohla added.
"It would provide the framework on how to unburden ourselves of state capture while looking at how to get citizens active in affairs that affect their daily lives. Municipalities will have to make conscious decisions. State apparatuses are sacred institutions and must be put to account at all times " Lehohla added.
Chairperson of the Law Trust, Professor Thuli Madonsela, and other social justice practitioners, academics and civil society wrote to Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, in May expressing their willingness to assist the government in monitoring the implementation of the Covid-19 policies to "ensure responsiveness to the day-to-day realities of the most vulnerable communities in all municipal wards".
This they said was to ensure implementation did not undermine the achievement of "equality, human dignity and advancement of human rights and freedoms for all."
The work would also form a social accountability "bulwark against corruption”.
A Social Justice and Coronavirus Covid-19 Policy and Relief Monitoring Alliance has since been formed
Madonsela said some people bore the brunt of the impact of Covid-19 and the related lockdown regulations more than others.
She said the relief offered by the state to those in need would have been "more substantial" had it not been for the historical legacy of poverty and inequality, compounded by corruption, including state capture.
"As a group, we have stepped in to act as a social accountability network, subjecting government’s policy responses to Covid-19 to scrutiny mostly to assure constitutional fidelity with particular emphasis on the constitutional equality duty and related social justice responsibilities, adherence, as far as possible to the dictates of democratic governance and preserving the rule of law," she added.
The Swartland municipality said a memorandum of agreement pertaining to the study with the university was signed and work was expected to start in the next few months.
Weekend Argus