“All religions emphasize the need to support charity, welfare and the disadvantaged. Obligatory giving is, thus, a manifestation of spirituality. This is why religious communities are capable, like no other sector of society, of mobilizing enormous resources for poverty alleviation and development initiative” (Maharaj & Chetty, 2007:82). Most African countries are faced with serious and worsening poverty (Wogaman, 1986:47), and one of greatest issues that demands our immediate attention within the church and society is poverty alleviation. Wogaman (1986:47) further argues that the increase in production has not served to bridge the great historic chasm between rich and poor. Hence, the church needs to direct its attention and its activity to poverty alleviation so that it becomes an advocate for the poor. Lawrence (2012:1) argued that we are created for fellowship with other people and also depend on God for our survival. Therefore, poverty touches all of God’s creatures and not simply those who experience it directly. Poverty prevents human beings from realizing their potential; it creates barriers of inequality between people, and bars people from experiencing the abundance of God’s creation.

The study was intended to assess the impact of social grants on beneficiaries with specific focus on Buffalo Municipality. The challenge of social injustice and inequality in the management and distribution of resources is challenge of any responsive government globally in providing social securities in different forms to secure the vulnerable and under privileged within the society. The South African government has introduced a comprehensive liberally inclusive social welfare scheme to address social injustice and economic inequality of excluded in the former apartheid government, which characterises the historic past of racial exclusive government of the majority black and the coloured. In other to assess the impact of grants in addressing inequality and social exclusiveness, the research was conducted using Desk Top Analytical approach and also explored ANOVA Two-ways and One-way, to test the degree of association and standard deviation to establish the contrast of effects based on spatial difference and social development of the urban, semi-urban and rural settlements which beneficiaries are living. Also, to establish whether or not the policy is achieving social cohesion, human development and transformation, which should be taken, place within the concept of social welfare. The theoretical frame work adopted is a multi-theoretical approach in dealing with the complexity around social welfare. The research is specifically looking for a theory of change in social grants administration in other to understand the impact and extent of the intervention in bringing about desired and motivated change as the scheme main priority of developmental social welfare in South Africa. Pearson correlation, Chi-square correlation and Tukey”s Post hoc Test are some of the instrument used in assessing the impact of grants on beneficiaries. The outcome of the study showed a highly significance p-value =.019, p<0.05 in spatial variance between Urban and Rural and the in between variance of .025, p<0.05 for Rural –Urban- Semi-urban (Fig.23 and Tab 8a). The study also, revealed an association between Child dependency and Sexual crime to be .009, p<0.01 (Fig 24 and Tab 6), Public violence in Rural area shows Post Hoc Test result of Mean= 2.6, SD= 2.07 for rural, Mean=1.40 SD= 1.52, for urban and a Mean=0.3, SD=0.54 for semi-urban in a descending order as it relate to social crime statistics (Fig.20). This implies that there are more frequent public violence in rural areas than that of the urban and semi-urban. The overall result shows a very strong correlation among all the variables of grants beneficiaries to be statistically relevant. This implies that the social grants intervention scheme is achieving its desired goals but in an unevenly form in term of spatial distribution and impact due to various factors that interdependent with each other.

The study was intended to assess the impact of social grants on beneficiaries with specific focus on Buffalo Municipality. The challenge of social injustice and inequality in the management and distribution of resources is challenge of any responsive government globally in providing social securities in different forms to secure the vulnerable and under privileged within the society. The South African government has introduced a comprehensive liberally inclusive social welfare scheme to address social injustice and economic inequality of excluded in the former apartheid government, which characterises the historic past of racial exclusive government of the majority black and the coloured. In other to assess the impact of grants in addressing inequality and social exclusiveness, the research was conducted using Desk Top Analytical approach and also explored ANOVA Two-ways and One-way, to test the degree of association and standard deviation to establish the contrast of effects based on spatial difference and social development of the urban, semi-urban and rural settlements which beneficiaries are living. Also, to establish whether or not the policy is achieving social cohesion, human development and transformation, which should be taken, place within the concept of social welfare. The theoretical frame work adopted is a multi-theoretical approach in dealing with the complexity around social welfare. The research is specifically looking for a theory of change in social grants administration in other to understand the impact and extent of the intervention in bringing about desired and motivated change as the scheme main priority of developmental social welfare in South Africa. Pearson correlation, Chi-square correlation and Tukey”s Post hoc Test are some of the instrument used in assessing the impact of grants on beneficiaries. The outcome of the study showed a highly significance p-value =.019, p<0.05 in spatial variance between Urban and Rural and the in between variance of .025, p<0.05 for Rural –Urban- Semi-urban (Fig.23 and Tab 8a). The study also, revealed an association between Child dependency and Sexual crime to be .009, p<0.01 (Fig 24 and Tab 6), Public violence in Rural area shows Post Hoc Test result of Mean= 2.6, SD= 2.07 for rural, Mean=1.40 SD= 1.52, for urban and a Mean=0.3, SD=0.54 for semi-urban in a descending order as it relate to social crime statistics (Fig.20). This implies that there are more frequent public violence in rural areas than that of the urban and semi-urban. The overall result shows a very strong correlation among all the variables of grants beneficiaries to be statistically relevant. This implies that the social grants intervention.

Some rural communities in South Africa suffer from the results of inequity and disempowerment. It is especially black females who are affected in this regard. A number of factors contribute to the oppression of female voices in their rural communities. In this study the voice is considered the right and freedom of speech for women to express their opinions in order to influence others. Both the national government and civil society fervently push for the placement of women and children empowerment onto the development agenda. Yet, one still notes with concern that in reality, it seems to be mostly men who fully enjoy freedom of speech, senior employment and decision making powers in South Africa. Thus, it remains evident that not enough has been done to redress gender inequities,especially in South African rural communities. Focussing on one rural community situated in the outskirts of the Eastern Cape (former Transkei), this research undertook to determine the various ways in which rural women may have their voice heard in their immediate communities, particularly pertaining to personal development issues. Community members, who were identified through a purposive sampling method, shared their perceptions on the research topic.Through the research, it has become clear that in order to overcome female silence, the communal role of women needs to be broadened beyond the scope of traditionally gendered activities such as the carrying out of house work/chores such as cooking or childrearing. Furthermore, women must be knowledgeable about their basic human rights and responsibilities; their education in this regard should be made a national priority. It has also become evident that in order to overcome female voices remaining silent, women should begin to take greater personal responsibility over their reproductive health.Practical recommendations to ddress each framed theme have been presented.

This study explores how livestock in rural communities were accessed, used as livelihoods portfolios and how off-farm activities and portfolios such as social grants, support from family members and employment assisted the rural poor to build their asset base. Empirical data was collected from 26 villages in the three districts. In particular the study examines firstly, the nature of rural poverty in these villages in the three districts and how households with and without livestock (cattle, sheep, goats, dogs, pigs, cats, ducks, horses and donkeys) used livestock local knowledge to sustain a living. Secondly it explores how the local government and related rural development agencies, intervened in livestock production and the thesis highlights the problematic nature of these interventions, and the implications this has for the form and nature of livestock ownership and use in relation to rural livelihoods. Arising from this, the thesis thirdly explores Ruliv‟s through concrete case studies, the challenges, constraints and implications of a pre-dominant top-down approach to rural development. Contrary to this approach, the study illustrates, through the Rhoxeni case study, the potential effectiveness of a „bottom-up‟ actor oriented approach to rural development. Fourthly, the study explores how local government initiatives intervened in the development of a rural livestock project in Alfred Nzo District Municipality through the Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Programme Goat Project. Here iv the concerns of „commercialisation‟ of livestock production are explored and the thesis points to the implications that the exclusion of social and cultural meanings of livestock have for assumed paths of commercialisation and its associations with development. Fifthly the study explores the potentiality of emerging black commercial farmers who had acquired large areas of agricultural land through local government interventions (Land Redistribution Agricultural Development) but who lacked further support and capacity to transform themselves into commercial farmers. The thesis concludes that their livestock and crop farming activities remained more subsistence and livelihood based, than any transition to expected technical market oriented commercial farming. Overall, the thesis argues that while local government planning for rural development prioritised commercial agriculture as the basis of rural development and the key mechanism of rural poverty alleviation in developmental policies (PGDP, IDP, LED), rural poverty has actually been deepening. In this context, the study argues that the value of livestock to the rural poor lies „outside‟ of its assumed economic value and is more firmly and determinedly located in its social meanings and values, despite these significant levels of material poverty. This has major implications for understanding livelihoods, engaging livestock agency, defining farming and what it means to be a „farmer‟ and engaging with prevalent understandings and practices directed at rural development.

Poverty, inequality and unemployment have always been challenging first in South Africa with special reference to rural South Africa. These persistent challenges with severe impacts on black population are believed to be the results of the previous governance in South Africa. Policies have been formulated, reformulated and others implemented in a form of development projects which have achieved little success in pursuit of combating these challenges. However, in the process of achieving rural development through developmental projects, a fundamental stage in the life cycle of these projects is often omitted or given little attention. This stage is the monitoring and evaluation stage which is critical to ascertain potential impacts (both positive and negative) especially if the project is to be replicated and achieve its objectives as postulated in the millennium development goals. This thesis attempted to carry out a Socio-Economic Impact Assessment (SEIA) of the Agripark project implemented at Dutywa on the livelihoods of communities directly affected by this project. The Agripark project is a project that comprises three linked components, a seedling nursery, an agro-processing facility and a sizeable feeder plot and has been implemented to benefit four villages. This project has been implemented as the second Agripark project by the University of Fort Hare in partnership with the province’s Department of Agriculture. To track change after the implementation of the project, data were collected from the same respondents that were interviewed for the baseline study, therefore, the same sample size that was used in the baseline study was also used for this study. As a tool for data collection, a questionnaire was developed to elicit the required information and was interviewer administered during data collection. The results of the study revealed that Agripark project has impact on both social and economic wellbeing of the households. The processing unit of the project was not yet functioning therefore the project was not fully effective thus the impact was not as intended by the project when the study was carried out. Skills transferred were only on production but only a small number of people could receive them. These households largely relied on external sources of income mainly on social grants and their contribution to total household income had increased to 88% in 2011 compared to 80% in 2008. As much as the increase in incomes cannot be entirely be because of the project but Agripark had a positive impact on household incomes through wages of those employed there and through increased profitability of hawking vegetables. The proportion of household earning incomes less than the Poverty line fell from 85% in 2008 to approximately 79% in 2011. The household complemented their staples with a variety of vegetables and the main source of these vegetables was Agripark even though own production was declining. Even though food was still the main item of these households expenditure, the proportion of income spent on food fell from 64% in 2008 to 48% in 2011. There were no environmental impacts found. From the descriptive analysis, the project had impact on the livelihoods of these households because it brought change on the household expenditure as a result of the income earned by those who are working in the Agripark. There was an improvement on risk of food insecurity through cheaper vegetable that both physically and financially attainable. However, as much as the project had positive impact, there were also concerns raised by the respondents that the employment was only biased to certain individuals which cased stress to some households. Furthermore, the empirical analysis of the selected variables showed that participation in Agripark had an impact on economic wellbeing of the beneficiaries. Thus, funding must be made available to the project so that it can upgrade their electricity and have the processing plant running as it may be the major source of employment, skills development and achievement of its objectives.

Poverty among individuals, households or communities is not a static condition. There are many factors which contribute to its causes and depth. In South Africa the economic gaps imposed by the previous apartheid government aggravated economic inequalities and caused considerable disparities, which has resulted in high unemployment rates. Inequalities were also manifest in the neglect of infrastructural and service provision as well in the effective absence of independent governance among some race group. This led to a call for pro-active initiatives by the post-1994 democratic government to remedy the living condition of the previously disadvantaged people. As part of its poverty relief drive the South African government has embarked on a series of developmental initiatives in bringing infrastructure related services to the poor and to reduce the enormous prevailing backlog, with the aim of increasing community participation, improving service delivery and promoting the upliftment of the lives of poor people through the medium of local governance. This study investigated the Integrated Development Planning, which has been undertaken in Grahamstown in the Makana Municipality in the Eastern Cape to respond to the prevailing poverty and underdevelopment among the poor communities. Relying on their developmental mandate to initiate and co-ordinate all development activities within their area of jurisdiction through the IDP, the Makana Municipality has drawn up a development strategic plan in conjunction with the local communities and with other stakeholders and organisations to identify and assess development backlogs within the communities with the aim of addressing such backlogs. This study revealed from the interviews conducted with some municipal personnel and questionnaires administered to sampled residents of Grahamstown that some faces of poverty, such as unemployment and lack of access to some of the most basic of infrastructure such as, sanitation facilities, water, electricity, formal house, education, security and recreation facilities are apparent in Grahamstown. However, the Makana Municipality through, the IDP has achieved some notable feats in the provision of providing some of the basic amenities such as water, housing, electricity and sanitation albeit at a slow rate. The mechanism of delivery is hampered by bureaucratic settings within government and the ambiguity attached to some of the projects. The service and infrastructural developments targeted towards the poor and the involvement of communities in the affairs of the local government might be seen as a partially panacea for poverty alleviation in South Africa. However the capacity of the local governments to effectively carry out this developmental challenge assignment might be a new twist in the developmental challenge facing local governments in South Africa. The thesis provides an overview of the Makana Municipality IDP and the degree to which is serving as one mechanism to address poverty in the Grahamstown urban area

Poverty, unemployment and inequality constitute the three main challenges to the attainment of universal socio-economic development within the Republic of South Africa. The government is the Republic of South Africa is grappling to alleviate and eradicate poverty since the dawn of freedom in April 1994. Further, poverty and inequality is historically racially biased due to the segregation which non-whites suffered during the pre-freedom era. The Eastern Cape Province has been regard as the poorest of all the nine provinces in South Africa. The war on poverty in the province has been intensified through the utilisation of social grants as social safety nets under an inclusive social security system. Despite of this poverty alleviation intervention, the prevalence rates of poverty the province remains alarmingly high.

This is an exploratory study of the impact of the land redistribution programme on the rural poor of Nkonkobe Municipality. There is a brief historical overview of land redistribution in the South African context. The study demonstrates the impact of the programme of land redistribution and its challenges for the rural poor. The critical question is whether the programme benefitted the rural poor of Nkonkobe Municipality. Chapter one deals with the aims of the research, background of the study, sub-related questions, delimitation of the study and the research method. Chapter two deals with the theoretical framework, a brief description of the study area, a discussion of the land question in South Africa including land reform experiences, redistribution policy and the government land reform programme. Chapter three deals with methodology, discussing the research design and research methods used. Chapter four deals with findings and recommendations.

Dwesa is a rural town situated in South Africa's Eastern Cape Province that has been selected as a testing site for an e-commerce project to address some of the challenges faced by the community. These challenges include difficulties stemming from poverty, poor access to public services, unemployment and low levels of literacy. The Siyakhula Living Lab project’s aim is to develop an e-commerce platform that will 'connect' the residents with the necessary access to services and markets by providing them with the necessary tools that can help in alleviating some of their challenges. In order for the project to achieve its objectives, a deeper understanding into the needs of the prospective users is required. User requirements elicitation deals with the process of interacting with the prospective users to understand and document their needs. This research aims at evaluating existing requirements elicitation techniques and methodologies in the context of rural information technology implementations. The primary objective is to develop a model for user requirements elicitation in Dwesa. Many requirements elicitation techniques and frameworks exist, but few have been evaluated in the context of rural software implementations. Requirements elicitation techniques should not be applied simply as steps to gather information. Instead this research project proposes a model that can be applied to assimilate the contribution of knowledge regarding the stakeholders, problem and solution characteristics, and other characteristics into the software development process for the effective elicitation of requirements.