Pedro Alexis Tabensky

There are at least two ways of dealing with the abject problem of poverty: one promising and the other not. One way involves conceiving of poverty as a problem and the other endorses the view that the poor are the problem. One requires ingenuity and care, and the other thirsts for violence.

Few things are more hateful than the self-righteous, arrogant and deliberate manipulation of the minds of the broken and destitute in the name of liberation.

The levels of anger are steadily rising among the poor in direct proportion to the number of empty promises made to them. Their lives are defined by violence; unemployment; poor housing; poor schooling; corruption at municipal level in addition to incompetence; and hunger.

I recently attended a meeting of the Unemployment Peoples’ Movement (UPM) in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, which was convened with the aim of exploring the causes of the severe water crisis currently affecting thousands of residents in the poorer areas of Makana Greater Municipality.