South Africa has made significant strides in reducing poverty and hunger over the past twenty years, this according to Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini. South Africa is ranked highly compared to others in meeting the eight Millennium Development Goals which list "eradicating extreme poverty and hunger" as a top priority. Despite this positive revelation people are still trapped in an unbreakable cycle of poverty. On the Forum@8 this morning we ask: Is poverty a curse?Our guests Leslie Dikeni author of Poverty of Ideas, The Retreat of Intellectuals in New Democracies and a Senior Researcher within the Humanity Faculty at the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection and regional secretary of the Western Cape region of COSATU Tony Ehrenreich engage on the discussion.