Overview
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© UNICEF SA Photo by G Pirozzi |
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South African children born after 1994 are known as "born frees". Here they celebrate their democracy with the popular custom of painting their beloved flag on their faces. |
Two nations in one
For many children in South Africa, life is their biggest challenge. Living in poor rural communities, overcrowded townships and dilapidated inner cities, these children do not have the privilege of private medical care, a school library brimming with books, a computer at home or in some instances, parents to love and protect them. What they often face is a childhood lost to poverty, disease, poor social services and broken homes. There have been many positive changes since 1994 but apartheid’s legacy of racial discrimination and segregation has created a great divide between children who have and children who have not. Bridging this gap is South Africa’s unfinished business.
Bridging the gap
High hopes have rested on South Africa’s economy to put right the inequalities of the past. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth has been relatively steady for the past eight years – averaging 4.1 per cent – faster than the country’s population growth – yet South Africa faces important challenges, owing to power shortages, credit tightening and global economic volatility, to reach the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative’s target of six per cent by 2010. More than a million jobs have been created in the two years to September 2006 (Development Indicators: Mid-Term Review, The Presidency, Republic of South Africa, 2007). Although a quarter of the work force is unemployed, with unemployment particularly biting among young people under the age of 35, women and African people, the rate of unemployment has been falling since 2003 (Labour Force Survey, March 2007, StatsSA).
Poverty has been reduced and the percentage of the population living below the poverty line of ZAR 3,000 per capita per year has dropped from 50 per cent in 1993 to 43 per cent in 2006 (Development Indicators: Mid-Term Review, The Presidency, Republic of South Africa, 2007). Building a social security net has been one of the government’s most successful measures in alleviating income poverty. More than 12 million people receive social grants and 67 per cent of the beneficiaries are children. In September 2007, over eight million children under the age of 14 received the ZAR 200 a month child support grant (Social grants stats as of 30 September 2007, www. sassa.gov.za), a 70 per cent increase in beneficiaries since June 2005. The extension of the grant to children up to their 15th birthday will come into effect from January 2009, firming the welfare net for hundreds of thousands of poor children.
But the country’s wealth has not trickled down sufficiently and the chasm between the rich and the poor continues to widen. South Africa’s Gini coefficient of 0.72 is high and has been steadily rising since 1994 (Income and Expenditure Survey 2006, StatsSA 2008). Millions of ordinary South African children, women and men, the majority of whom are black, continue to live on the margins of mainstream life. Reaching the Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty by 2015 will be one of South Africa’s greatest challenges.
Respect for children’s rights
Since 1994, the democratic government has taken important steps to weave children’s rights into the South African legal fabric. The country has signed and ratified all major international child-related agreements. Child rights are enshrined in the Constitution, seen as one of the most progressive in the world. A new comprehensive Children’s Act has been developed to incorporate principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the African Charter on Rights and Welfare of the Child and other global child rights conventions into local legislation. Parliament has also approved the long-awaited Sexual Offences Bill, which will help to better protect victims of rape, the majority of whom are children and women. However, despite the best efforts, putting these laws into practice and making children’s rights a lived reality has been slow.
Education is a priority
South Africa is on track in achieving the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education – that is, making sure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling – and education is one of the highest priorities in national resource allocation. Close to 98 per cent of school-aged children attend primary school. Around 60 per cent of five-year olds and 86 per cent of six-year olds are attending educational institutions, up from 40 per cent and 70 per cent in 2002 respectively (General Household Survey, 2005). The number of schools without water, electricity and permanent buildings has been dropping since 1994. The national curriculum has been revised to include social justice, a healthy environment, human rights, inclusivity and is also outcomes-based with a focus on children learning. Around five million children who cannot afford school fees are benefiting from the no-fee school policy, introduced by the government in 2006. Despite this, quality education is not taking place in many schools. Children living in rural areas and in poverty-stricken communities where inequality, violence, HIV and AIDS and poor services are a feature of everyday life do not get the education they deserve.
School safety a major concern
The safety of learners has become a matter of national concern as violence in schools becomes a daily reality for thousands of children (Public hearings on school-based violence, submission made to the South African Human Rights Commission by the Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention). South African schools face challenges in responding to incidences of abuse, violence and sexual assault. In September 2006 public hearings on ‘School Based Violence’ were held under the auspices of South Africa’s Human Rights Commission. Testimonies revealed that the situation was much more serious than initially thought, with witnesses speaking about the prevalence of students with weapons, learners inflicting violence on other learners, as well as the rape of students. While learners, teachers and principals perpetuate the violence, female pupils are the main victims of sexual assault. Since then, schools have started putting in place policies, procedures and programmes to curb the violence.
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© UNICEF SA by G Pirozzi |
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Access to public schooling for children is widely available and enrolment continues to increase but the quality of education in township and rural schools is a major concern. |
Child survival at stake
Another worrying development is South Africa’s child mortality record. One in every 17 children die before they reach five years (Demographic and Health Survey, 2003) and the under-five mortality rate has not changed in recent years (Every death counts: Saving the lives of mothers, babies and children in South Africa, Dept. of Health, Medical Research Council, Save the Children Fund, University of Pretoria, UNICEF, 2007). This comes despite the introduction of free primary healthcare for women and children and the huge efforts made to tackle HIV and AIDS. HIV-related illnesses, neonatal causes and childhood infections such as pneumonia and diarrhoea are responsible for a third of all under-five deaths and malnutrition contributes significantly to child mortality. Injuries and violence cause another five per cent of deaths in children under the age of five. Neonatal mortality is also a serious problem. Every year, 20,000 babies are stillborn and another 22,000 die before they are a month old. Deaths during the first month of life account for 30 per cent of all child deaths and are due to complications from preterm birth, infections and birth asphyxia. Most of the 4,500 asphyxia-related deaths could be prevented through improved care during childbirth. On the plus side, immunisation rates for all major vaccine-preventable diseases are above 97 per cent coverage of children under the age of one, except for measles at 84 per cent (Review of National Immunisation Coverage, 1980–2006, WHO/UNICEF June 2007). Highly effective healthcare interventions to tackle the major causes of deaths in babies and children exist in South Africa. What is needed to save more lives is improvements in the quality and coverage of these ‘high-impact’ interventions. With greater investments and wider-reaching service delivery, South Africa could reach the Millennium Development Goal of reducing under-five mortality to less than 21 per 1,000 live births.
South Africa is also making excellent progress in bringing safe drinking water and adequate sanitation to its people. An estimated 85 per cent of households have access to a supply of water at or above the national standard of 25 litres per person per day and 71 per cent of South African homes have access to proper sanitation15. South Africa has achieved the Millennium Development Goal target of halving the percentage of people with access to clean water by 2015 and is on track to reach the Goal on sanitation services for 75 per cent of the population.
Healthy mothers, healthy children
To keep children healthy and growing properly, women also need to be in good health – before, during and after pregnancy. South Africa’s antenatal and child delivery services have a wide reach, which improves from year to year. The majority of women – 92 per cent – go for antenatal care and 92 per cent of deliveries are assisted by a skilled medical professional (Demographic and Health Survey, 2003), eight percentage points higher than in 1998. Yet despite these positive trends, the maternal mortality ratio has more than doubled between 1998 and 2003, from 74 to 165.5 per 100,000 live births respectively (Development Indicators: Mid-Term Review, The Presidency, Republic of South Africa, 2007). HIVrelated diseases and pneumonia are the main killers of women and mothers (Every death counts: Saving the lives of mothers, babies and children in South Africa, Dept. of Health, Medical Research Council, Save the Children Fund, University of Pretoria, UNICEF, 2007). Complications from high blood pressure and haemorrhage before and during pregnancy are also responsible for maternal deaths but can be easily prevented with better antenatal and childbirth care. For South Africa to reach the Millennium Development Goal of reducing maternal mortality by two-thirds by 2015, the country needs to improve the quality of maternal healthcare and increase pregnant women’s access to services that prevent mother-tochild transmission of HIV, including antiretroviral treatment for HIV-positive women.
Children and AIDS
South Africa carries the world’s largest number of people infected with HIV – 5.4 million and 18.8 per cent of South Africans in their prime (15–49 years of age) are living with HIV and AIDS (National HIV and Syphilis Antenatal Sero-Prevalence Survey 2006, Dept. of Health). Women bear the brunt of HIV infection, especially those in their child bearing years. Close to a third of pregnant women are HIV-positive (National HIV and Syphilis Antenatal Sero-prevalance Survey in South Africa, 2006, Department of Health), although prevalence rates are decreasing in the youngest age group of pregnant women – those below the age of 20. This may be a sign that the epidemic has reached its peak and is levelling off. An estimated 258,000 children under the age of 14 are living with HIV and AIDS (National HIV and Syphilis Antenatal Sero-prevalance Survey in South Africa, 2006, Department of Health), with the majority having contracted the virus through mother-to-child transmission. Approximately 69 per cent of children and adults with advanced HIV infection were getting antiretroviral treatment in 2007, up from 44 per cent in 2006 (Estimates by the Actuarial Society of South Africa, 2006).
One of the most wretched ramifications of HIV and AIDS is the escalating numbers of orphaned and vulnerable children. This is especially worrying as parents and caregivers continue to die from HIV-related illnesses. More than two-thirds of all adult deaths are due to AIDS (Estimates by the Actuarial Society of South Africa, 2006). South Africa has 2.5 million children who have lost a parent (Human Science and Research Council, 2005) and by 2015, five million orphans are expected in the country if nothing is done to stem the rate of adult deaths. Left on their own or in the care of others, orphaned children are vulnerable to abuse, neglect and sexual and economic exploitation. Orphaned children also risk missing out on education, healthcare, basic nutrition and hygiene. Around 68 per cent of orphaned children attend school compared to 84 per cent of children who are not orphaned (UNGASS Country Progress Report, Department of Health, 2008).
Growing up with violence
There is no question that South Africa has exceptionally high levels of contact crime – or violent crime against people – and children and women are victims in a significant number of reported cases. Murder, rape, assault, aggravated robbery and other people-on-people crimes account for more than a third of the country’s recorded serious crime, according to the South African Police Services. For every 100,000 people, 41 were raped, 111 people were murdered and 443 were assaulted in 2006/2007 (Crime Situation, 2007, South African Police Services). In 2004/05, 40 per cent of reported rapes were against children. Police statistics are only the tip of the iceberg. Under-reporting of crime is common, especially when it involves people that come from the same family or community. In the majority of contact crimes that happen in social or domestic settings, perpetrators and victims know each other – they are friends, acquaintances or family members. This means that children and women are assaulted, killed and raped in the intimacy of their homes and neighbourhoods. Sexual violence brings with it a host of other ills such as exposure to HIV infection and other sexually transmitted illnesses, post-traumatic stress and ruined lives.
UNICEF is a member of the United Nations family of development agencies.
Read some more:
State of the Nation: South Africa 2005 - 2006, published by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC Press)
