Most children living on the edge

More than half of South Africa's children are in households that struggle to survive each month, in the continent's wealthiest country, according to the findings of a new report.

They are part of families earning less than a US$1 a day, derived mainly 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 10 children do not survive to their fifth birthday in South Africa, one of the top fifty richest countries in the world, and 30 percent of these deaths are the result of poverty-related diseases, the report said.

Government welfare cheques 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.

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. 

Apartheid, which resulted in extreme levels of race-based inequality, continues to haunt the country. 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."

Falling through the cracks

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 policy failings, Hall commented. To qualify for a child support grant, caregivers should have a monthly household income of less than $111.

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 blocked from other poverty alleviation programmes like school feeding schemes, while a no-fees policy stops when a child turns 15, and free hospital services are only available to under sixes.

Hall urged the government to increase the amount of the grant, and extend it 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 a wider pool of beneficiaries.

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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