Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - November 13, 2007
Melody Brandon and Sashni Pather

Eight million South African children would be without food or care were it not for government grants, Zola Skweyiya, the minister of social development, said yesterday.

He was announcing plans to extend government support to hundreds of thousands of orphans, "vulnerable children" and child- headed households that are a conse- quence of the HIV/Aids pandemic.

The 2001 census put the number of child-headed households at 248000, but the minister said there had been a significant increase since then.

Skweyiya said: "HIV and Aids is one of the key challenges facing South Africa today. As stated in the country's HIV and Aids Strategic Plan of 2007-2011, more than five million people were estimated to be living with HIV in 2005."

The department of social development is also developing a national database of orphans and vulnerable children.

Lakela Kaunda, chief director of communication for the department, said the database will improve service delivery to needy children and protect them from exploitation. She said: "With the establishment of this database we will know exactly who these children are, as well as where they stay and their circumstances.

"The child support grant is currently R200, while the foster care grant is R560 per month. There is a process applicants have to go through before grants will be approved."

To date 462294 children receive the foster care grant, while more than eight million children receive the child support grant.

Lisa Vetten, senior researcher at the Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre, said though it was shocking that eight million children depended on the grant, it was good news they were receiving something.

She said: "The barrier to them receiving grants is that some do not have birth certificates.

Most live in rural areas and have to make repeat trips to obtain grants.

They can't afford the trips, so they give up . Social workers from the department need to make the trips to find these children."

Beth Goldblatt, a researcher for the Centre for Applied Legal Studies at Wits University, said the child support grant of R200 did not cover a child's basic needs.

She said: "M oney is given to the primary care-giver, usually the mother. It is barely enough to feed a child, but is used to support entire households."

Goldblatt said 24 million South African's live below the poverty line. "Half of them, around 12 million, are on the grant system. But family members living with them, who do not receive grants themselves, also make use of this money," she said.

# A survey by the South African Institute of Race Relations has found the number of desperately poor South Africans has doubled since 1996, despite the faster pace of economic growth.

The survey found that 4.2 million people were living on less than 1 (about R6.74) a day in 2005 - up from 1.9 million in 1996, Reuters reported.

"The proportion of South Africans living on less than 1/day doubled between 1996 and 2005," the SAIRR said.

071113
ST071105