SUNDAY April 29, at 18:30 on SABC
2:
In
Fokus:
Beyond the Saltpan
Unlike his surname suggests Samuel Fortuin doesn’t have a fortune. But compared to poverty stricken standards in Port Elizabeth’s Missionvale – he’s a wealthy man.
Like thousands before and after him, Samuel grew up dirt poor on the “wrong side” of the saltpan that forms a physical border between Missionvale and the rest of Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape. As a child life beyond the saltpan seemed like a dream to Samuel – that’s where there was electricity, tarred roads, proper houses. Samuel’s parents knew the only way out of poverty was to ensure he completed his education. Today Samuel holds a senior post at Telkom.
Statistics show life is not improving for many of South Africa’s so-called coloured population. The Foundation for Empowerment through Afrikaans says nearly a quarter of coloured youths older than 16 are not at school and few complete a tertiary education. While coloured youth represent only about 9-percent of the total South African population, the represent 18-percent of the prison population. Since 1994 unemployment among coloured people has jumped to 19-percent – an increase of 35-percent! In suburbs like Delft in the Western Cape the unemployed blame affirmative action for their predicament.
Award winning producer, Keith Sayster examines the issues affecting coloured South Africans and then Freek Robinson
discuss the issues with prominent community leaders, Cobus Dowry (Western Cape MEC for Agriculture), Marlene le Roux (Director Community Development: Artscape) and Prof. Danny Titus (Dep. Dean of Law at UNISA).
|
