SOUTH AFRICA:AFRICAN NATIONAL Congress leader Jacob Zuma has described the plight of South Africa's homeless white population, estimated at over 130,000, as shocking following a tour of a white informal settlement, writes Bill Corcoran.
The frontrunner to become South Africa's next president made his comments in front of 1,000 homeless white men and women from approximately 40 squatter camps in the Pretoria area. He was speaking at the Bethlehem settlement, which is near the capital.
"I am shocked and surprised by what I have seen here," he said on Thursday. "The vast number of black poverty does not mean that we must ignore white poverty, which is increasingly becoming an embarrassment to talk about."
The tour was organised by Helping Hands, the outreach programme of Solidarity, the white trade union. It is the second time since the beginning of the year that Mr Zuma accepted an invitation to visit impoverished whites on the fringes of South African society.
The Helping Hand charity released results last May of research into white poverty over the past five years. It claimed that the number of homeless whites had increased by 58 per cent since 2002 to more than 130,000.
The report said that rather than coming together in large communities, as is the case with homeless blacks, whites tended to live in shacks at the back of someone's property, or in very small informal settlements of up to 100 people.
The problem of homeless whites has been exacerbated in Gauteng province, home to the cities of Pretoria and Johannesburg. This was brought about by a 2005 provincial decision to withdraw subsidies from whites-focused welfare groups should they fail to transform their staff into one that was racially mixed.
However, the minister of social development Zola Skweyiya, who accompanied Mr Zuma during Thursday's visit, gave an undertaking to those present that the 2005 decision would be addressed.
Solidarity deputy general secretary Dirk Hermann said by showing interest in the welfare of poor whites, Mr Zuma had changed the political landscape because up to this point they had not been not recognised by the government.
Analysts say Mr Zuma is trying to increase his appeal in white communities ahead of next year's general election. The ANC is expected to lose some of its traditional support base in the black communities because of a failure to deliver basic services.
It is also seen as a response to the predominately white Democratic Alliance Party's attempts to court the disaffected supporter base of the ruling party ahead of the poll.