CAUSE OF OUR POVERTY: INTELLECTUAL FATIGUE OR RESOURCE CONSTRAINT

Abstract

The dimensions of poverty are most egregious from a rural South African perspective. This study takes a deeper insight into the major causes of poverty 28 years after the expiry of the apartheid rule. It carefully examines if the cause of poverty may be largely attributed to intellectual fatigue or resource constraint, whilst shedding light on other instigators to poverty. To give precision to this paper, it is streamlined to three poverty stricken rural communities in South Africa. The nature of this study warrants the input of several stakeholders who are main drivers of poverty alleviation initiatives alongside their beneficiaries. Thus, the article adopted a Multiple Case study in order to obtain emic perspectives. Document analysis was also imperative as it served as a means of triangulation. Inferences from the study participants alongside views of commentators thus suggest that communities understudy are on an ineluctable path to failure, that which will continuously entrap these rural communities in poverty. Undoubtedly, the major cause of poverty in the communities of Gunjaneni, Lusikisiki Mcobothini and Mgobodzi is arguably not due to resource constraint, but partly due to the absence of intellectual acumen among key developmental stakeholders. The paper also argues that electoral victory attained through majoritarianism, and not that by the degree of competence or resourcefulness of candidate is often at the expense of the poor.