That is why it is delivered by the head of state and not its foot soldiers. It is actually intended to set the political and strategic agenda for the government and parliament, and set the pace for the workmanship. It is meant to give a critique (politically ,economically,socially) of the state of the nation as the name dictates, and then INSPIRE confidence in the government's program to address national interests. It does not simply mean to itemize government activity items (as you would expect in the cabinet memo or programmer of action) but to inspire confidence in government people and strategic program to respond to the nation's need and aspirations.
Activity items are intended to bear evidence of an agenda in motion, and can't dominate an entire address of this nature. Facts/statistics/quotas alone have never changed the hearts and minds of ordinary people like me. The major problem that affects our economy today is poverty and rural development, whilst reading through the State of the Nation Address and the Mail&Guardian i was touched by these issues.The president outlines what he intends to do during the time period as president, but lack going into detail/depth on how he intends doing that.
Using data from a national living standards survey undertaken in late 1993, this paper disaggregates and explores the economics of livelihood generation and class in rural South Africa in an effort to contribute to the ongoing and vociferous debate in South Africa about poverty and its alleviation. Pursuant to the suggestion of participants in a recent participatory poverty assessment poverty assessment, this paper analyzes what might be termed the class structure of poverty. After exploring the range of claiming systems and livelihood tactics available in rural South Africa, the paper offers a first look at who the poor are by disaggregating the rural population into discrete livelihood strategy classes. Non-parametic regression methods are used to then estimate and graphically explore the nature of the livelihood mapping between endowments and real incomes. In addition to identifying levels below the poverty line (the asset basis of poverty), the topography of the estimated livelihood mapping helps identify the constraints that limit household's ability to effectively utilize their constraints, which limit the effectiveness with which those assets and endowments. These results suggest that poverty is a matter of not only having a few assets, but also of constraints, which limit the effectiveness with which those assets are used, and poverty and livelihood policy needs to be designed accordingly.
Growth, development, poverty and inequality
Over the past decade government have ben seen to be increasingly constrained in terms of the actions that they are able to take which promote growth or regulate the ways in which the benefits of growth or regulate the ways in which the benefits of growth are distributed. An inherent belief behind this approach has been that the benefits of the growth would reach the poor through a trickle down effect. All that was needed for successful development was the freeing up of markets and removals of state controls and intervention. Increasingly these views are being challenged from both the perspectives of neo-classical economics and political economy. Experience has also shown the unqualified belief in the market to be incorrect. In many instances, the poor have not benefited from market-oriented microeconomic policy reforms because the underlying institutional context has remained the same.
The question thats running through my mind is that will the president use the same tactics an strategies which were used in the past an improve on those or will he introduce a new way of doing things and will it work in our favor as South Africans.The RDP housing plan has surely helped those certain individuals in South Africa but hasn't made much difference to the majority of the poor people in South Africa,is it wise for the president to continue with this seeing that there are an estimated 1 billion people in South Africa who are homeless as well as very poor and the number is increasing. These people are not only materially poor,they are also often deprived of basic Knowledge about their rights as citizens and as city dwellers. Their own capacity to change their situation. These two aspects of their poverty conspire to reduce the option the perceive as being available to them as human begins. These people are waiting to see if the government will keep there promises and be able to fulfill their needs, will determine if they will take part in the regional elections next year.
Reference: Mail&Guardian online,Google-RDP development/Rural development/poverty and iol.com/scholar(1993-2010).
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