SHILOH FOUNDATION

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We Are A South Africa Bassed NPO.
Currently We Are Feeding Between 20 & 30 Underprivileged
Children In Our Community And Surrounding Areas.
Our Mission Is To Better The Lives Of The
Underprivileged In Our Community.
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Child Poverty In South Africa

Newsletter 22 – Child poverty – 22 May 2009
This website has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty and the South African Institute of Race Relations and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union.
Poverty is more severe among children, where the poverty rate was estimated at 65.5%, than among adults, where the poverty rate was significantly lower at 45.2%.
This newsletter looks at the extent of child poverty in South Africa as measured by a report titled “Measuring child poverty in South Africa”. This report was based on Statistics South Africa’s Income and Expenditure Survey 2005/06, which was released in 2008.
For the purposes of this analysis, poverty was defined as income below R4 560 per person per year, or R380 per month. This figure encompassed the poorest 40% of households. The poverty rate per person was obtained by dividing the household income by the number of people in the household.
The report shows that poverty is more severe among children, where the poverty rate was estimated at 65.5%, than among adults, where the poverty rate was significantly lower at 45.2%. The poverty rate was 66.1% for children aged 0 to 4 years, 65.7% for children aged 5 to 14, and 63.8% for children aged 15 to 17 years. The total number of poor children was 11.8 million, of which 6.7 million were between 5 and 14 years, 3 million were between 0 and 4 years, and 2 million were between 15 and 17 years.
Taking into consideration the fact that child support grants are provided to children 15 years and younger, it is surprising that child poverty rates are higher amongst younger children. This is most likely due to the fact that the child support grant does not move the child above the poverty line.
The rate of child poverty was highest in the Limpopo province at 78%, followed by the Eastern Cape at 77.9%, and KwaZulu-Natal at 75%. The lowest child poverty rate was in the Western Cape at 37.9%.
While the child poverty rate was highest in Limpopo, the number of poor children was higher in more populous provinces. KwaZulu-Natal had the highest number of poor children, with a quarter of South Africa’s poor children found in the province. The Eastern Cape had 20% of the country’s poor children, followed by Limpopo with 17%. The Northern Cape had the lowest number of poor children in the country, accounting for 2% of South Africa’s poor children.
Of the 11.8 million poor children, 11.1million or 94% were African, some 623 412 or 5% were coloured, 76 137 or 0.6% were Asian, and 0.1% were white. Africans account for 80% of the population, followed by white people accounting for 9%, coloured people at 9%, and Asians at 2.5%, according to the 2007/08 South Africa Survey published by the South African Institute of Race Relations.
Child poverty, and poverty in general, were discussed and highlighted as key issues during the first two Major Urban Poverty Challenges Identification (MUPCI) workshops held in Tshwane and Cape Town. A key concern raised in both workshops was the fact that poor children find it difficult to move out of their poverty situations because of the poorer quality of education in schools, and the environments in which they live.
The remaining six MUPCI workshops will take place during July and August 2009, and the remaining municipalities will have the opportunity to highlight the key poverty concerns in their areas.
The municipal outreach project aims to provide extensive research, such as that used in the above analysis, to municipalities covered by the Municipal Outreach Project. This will be done by means of publications, the project website, and workshops. A monthly publication called Fast Facts for Local Government (F3LG) is sent to local councillors, officials, and development organisations in the eight municipalities covered by the project. A weekly newsletter is posted on the project website on Fridays, and e-mailed to project beneficiaries. The annual Survey, published by the Institute, will be posted to municipalities and extracts posted on the project website.
-Nthamaga Kgafela

by Nthamaga Kgafela — last modified 2009-05-20 08:31

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