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Pretoria - People want the tools to eke out their own existence so that they can have the dignity of earning a living, said retired Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane.
Ndungane was speaking at the National Good Governance Conference in Pretoria on Monday.
Poverty prevails where there is no good governance, he said.
However, Ndungane told delegates there was still hope for good governance and said people wanted to contribute to development.
"There is hope: hope if we put good governance into place so that aspirations of the people on the ground are realised," he said.
"People want to be involved in their development. They want to participate in the economic life so that they can have the dignity of earning a living."
He said people did not want free things, but wanted to contribute to their well-being.
"People on the ground are saying: '... We have hands, brains, give us the wherewithal to eke out our existence.' That means listening to their voices and giving them the necessary capacity in terms of economic development."
He said poverty was a cocktail of household problems: HIV/Aids, a lack of access to primary health, quality education, and income, and the absence of food security.
"On the other hand, these multiple tangible challenges are exacerbated by intangible factors, like the sense of powerlessness over one's life that most of the poor experience on a daily basis; or their systemic exclusion from political, economic and social progress."
