159 POVERTY AMIDST PLENTY: SOUTHERN AFRICA’S REGIONAL SHAME Jephias Mapuva African Center for Citizenship and Democracy, University of the Western Cape, South Africa Peter Makaye Department of History and Development, Midlands State University, Zimbabwe ABSTRACT Poverty has been a characteristic of most of the southern African region. Despite the fact that the region is endowed with unprecedented amounts and varieties of natural resources (mineral, flora, and fauna), poverty levels has continued to threaten the livelihoods of most of the region’s citizens as well as its sovereignty. The appalling phenomena in Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe have attracted international attention, given that each of these countries boast of one resource or another which, if fully and properly utilized, would earn the region the bread basket status for the continent. Individually and among others, the region has wildlife, river systems conducive to the generation of electricity, oil, minerals, and arable land and pastures for animal husbandry. Ironically, poverty is a stark reality in the region with the generality of the population living below a US$ per day. HIV/AIDS rates of infection are among the highest in the world. Many live below the Food Datum Line (FDL) and unemployment in all these countries is soaring. This paper analyzes this scenario. Among others, it raises the following questions: 1. To what extent have neo-colonial structures inhibited the confronting of poverty head on? 2. To what extent are the region’s development partners a disappointment in its struggle for sustainable socio-economic development? 3. How far has the region persistently and consistently applied itself to policies it has set for itself for the eradication of poverty? The paper essentially argues that chronic food shortages, recurrent famine, deteriorating terms of trade, and rising unemployment are the results of the regional political leadership’s failure to confront, head on, the colonial structures and neo-colonialism that inhibit development. The region’s development partners are also letting it down. Regional and continental blueprints that have been drawn to deal with growing poverty have not been applied persistently. Poverty has, therefore, remained a regional shame for southern Africa. Keywords: Poverty; Natural Resources; Minerals; Endowed; Flora and Fauna Journal of Sustainable Development in Africa (Volume 12, No.7, 2010) ISSN: 1520-5509 Clarion University of Pennsylvania, Clarion, Pennsylvania