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SOUTH AFRICA: Most children cannot afford to survive

06 Feb 2007 20:28:29 GMT
Source: IRIN

JOHANNESBURG, 6 February (IRIN) - More than half of South Africa's children - 10 million - do not have enough money to live on, according to the findings of a new report.

The children have access to a household income of less than a US$1 a day, derived mostly from social grants provided by the state, according to the findings of the 'South African Child Gauge 2006', produced by the Children's Institute (CI) at the University of Cape Town.

"While children have access to child support grants of R190 (about $26) a month, it is often shared with siblings and other members of the family," said Katharine Hall, a senior researcher for the CI's Child Poverty Programme.

One in every ten children do not survive to their fifth birthday in South Africa, the richest country on the African continent, and 30 percent of these deaths are the result of poverty-related diseases, the report said.

Social grants are a critical means of survival in a country where jobs are hard to come by; the unofficial unemployment rate is estimated at around 40 percent, against the official unemployment figure of 25.6 percent. The CI report identified the poorest provinces as those with large rural populations and little access to job opportunities.

A recent probe by Research Surveys, an information-gathering company, found that one in five South Africans did not have enough to eat, and one-third of black South Africans said they often or sometimes could not afford to eat properly.

The racially discriminatory policy of the past, which resulted in very high levels of inequality, continues to haunt the future. According to the report, black children were found to be the worst off (64 percent), followed by coloured (24 percent), Indian (15 percent) and white (4 percent) children. "A mere 1 percent of African children were living in households with earnings of R16,000 ($2,227) or more a month, compared to 29 percent of white children."

Several million children are also falling through the cracks of the government social support system, because caregivers cannot fulfill the grant criteria, there are administrative errors, or policies designs exclude teenagers aged between 14 and 18, Hall commented. To qualify for a child support grant, caregivers should have a monthly household income of $111 or less.

In 2006, just over 1.4 million eligible children had yet to access a monthly child support grant of $26, according to the recent General Household Survey, conducted by the state-owned Statistics South Africa, on which the CI study is based.

Moreover, Hall pointed out, four million children aged between 14 and 18 are excluded from accessing the grant. Teenagers are also excluded from other poverty alleviation programmes like school feeding schemes, which are not available in high schools; the no-fees policy stops when a child turns 15; free hospital services are only available to children younger than six years or those whose with a social grant card.

Hall urged the government to increase the amount of the grant, and extend the grant and other social programmes to older children.

Kgati Sathekge, a spokesman for the government's Department of Social Development, said more than seven million of South Africa's 18 million children were accessing the child support grant, and "we are constantly trying to [offer] access [to] more children". He said the amount was increased every year and the government was considering extending the social safety network to include older children.

Many nongovernmental organisations and the country's major labour federation have been lobbying for a basic income grant of about $17 per person per month for every South African citizen, regardless of age or income level, as the best option for helping the 50 percent of South Africa's population they claim are poor.

The social safety net - child grants, pensions, foster-child support and disability payments - covers only 11 million of the country's estimated 47 million people.

The South African government has maintained that it did not want to create a culture of dependency by giving people a basic income grant.

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Last updated:Tue Feb 6 20:30:42 2007