Barry Streek
More than five million children in South Africa 30% of those under the age of 17 regularly go hungry, according to a new study by the Institute for a Democratic South Africa (Idasa).
Roughly a quarter of the country’s 5,3-million very poor children are in KwaZulu-Natal and a further quarter in the Eastern Cape. Mpumalanga and Northern Province are home to a share of 10% each.
The Idasa study also says that 10,5-million, or 59,3%, of the 18-million children below the age of 17 are poor, in that they lack income. These represent almost a quarter of South Africa’s population.
The authors say a marginal increase of 0,4% in the child poverty rate took place between 1995 and 1999 among children under the age of 17, but there was a marginal decrease, also of 0,4%, in poverty of children under the age of six.
There were increases in child poverty in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Northern Province, but all other provinces saw decreases across both age categories.
At most, only 12% of South Africa’s poor children were receiving social security in the form of child support grants (of R110 a month a child under the age of six and care dependency grants of R570 a month for children with severe disabilities).
The researchers say that in real terms the government is budgeting for a decrease in spending per learner in provincial expenditure in public schools over the next three financial years from R3 396 a pupil a year in 2000/1 to R3 295 in 2003/4.
While access to public schooling stood at almost 100% in some provinces, in KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and the Northern Province more than 10% of children were not receiving this right.
The authors conclude that the government has for the most part met its social security and educational obligations to children. The major exception was the lack of budgeting for the social security needs of children older than six.
A poor level of access to education was particularly widespread among children with special learning needs, notably in rural areas. Only 21% of children eligible for early childhood development were being accommodated.