PREDICTORS OF POVERTY: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF LOW INCOME COMMUNITIES IN THE NORTHERN FREE STATE REGION, SOUTH AFRICA

• Main Author: D. F. Meyer
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Social Sciences Research Society 2016-07-01
• Series: International Journal of Social Sciences and Humanity Studies
• Online Access: http://www.sobiad.org/eJOURNALS/journal_IJSS/arhieves/IJSS2016_2/paper46b_Meyer.pdf

Poverty is a global phenomenon and has proven difficult to resolve. Strategies toaddress it need to be focused on factors associated with poverty through localresearch as problems differ from region to region. Poverty, together withinequality and unemployment, is one of the three foremostdevelopmentalproblems in South Africa. This paper presents an analysis ofthe predictors ofpoverty of low-income communities in the Northern Free State region, SouthAfrica. Predictors, such as gender of head of household, type of dwelling,property ownership, housing subsidy, quality of service delivery, income andemployment, were analysed to determine their impact on poverty in the studyregion with a specific focus on Zamdela, Kwakwatsi and Tumahole. A total of 2678 households were included in the survey. The study used aggregate income ofhouseholds to determine the status and level of poverty. A logistic regression wasutilised to determine the impact of the various predictors of poverty. Of all these,the most significant for a household were found to be the gender of the head of thehousehold and employment status. Strategies for poverty alleviation should befocused on localproblems by means of local research. The implementation ofappropriate policy and projects isalso important for success.