The heartbreaking headline in a daily newspaper read "No shoes, no exams" after two pupils were "thrown" out of school for not wearing shoes that their unemployed mother could not afford.

It was Eli Khamarov, who wrote: "Poverty is a like punishment for a crime you did not commit."

The prevalence of poverty and misery in SA is a paradox. We should by no means be a poor nation, despite being stupendously wealthy country. Sadly, we wallow in abject poverty.

Poverty has assumed unprecedented and unacceptable levels. It induced agitation and violent conflicts pose increasing threats to our democracy.

Human suffering, hardships and endemic unemployment have reached critical levels. A serious threat to our future and security. There is no gain saying that poverty and democracy have a high degree of correlation and they affect each other in profound ways.

Poverty is the absence of all human rights. As we seek to strengthen the fabric of the nation, there needs to be a concentrated focus on the root causes of instability, conflict and confrontation everywhere. The danger signals are unmistakably clear.

Whatever the cloud of uncertainty may hang over the future, we must not fail to lay the foundation of a more stable and equitable order which fosters greater hope and wider opportunities for mankind.

Farouk Araie, Actonville, Benoni