South Africa: Ordinary South Africans Define a Decent Life

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Arbitrary statistical tools for defining poverty - including the outmoded $1-a-day measure - are being overturned by models of dignity created by groups around the country.

What will it take to shock South Africa into recognising the extent of the impoverishment that characterises daily life for millions of South Africans? What tipping point must be reached before the right to a decent life for all becomes a reality, and what have we lost in our common humanity that makes it all right to live with such inequalities daily? Have we become so used to statistics that we deaden ourselves to what it means to live in and with poverty?

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