Impact of CASASP's Work
Inequality shapes the new generation / A child-friendly focus will help us redraw our map / Inequality shapes lives of millions of children trapped in patchwork web
From: Pretoria News, The Star, Cape Times
Date: October 2012
South Africa is a patchwork quilt of 280 municipalities and, at a smaller level, 22 000 datazones. When we say patchwork, the emphasis is on 'patchy'.
The spatial arrangements of apartheid are so entrenched that when areas are ranked by level of deprivation and coloured in, you might think you are looking at the internal boundaries of the old SA rather than a contemporary poverty map.
Pockets of extreme poverty appear like bruises on the peripheries of cities and in the former homelands.
This patchwork effect is not only a snapshot in time - it is also a warning that inequality (which is rising) is self-perpetuating and will persist into the future unless something is done to break the cycle.
If we are to imagine a different picture, we should be developing strategies to ensure that future generations have different prospects. A focus on children needs to be part of the renewed development agenda...
Read the full text here.
Children in urgent need
From: Daily Dispatch
Date: 18 October 2012
There are snippets of good news for the Eastern Cape in the Children's Institute report featured elsewhere in this newspaper today. But the overall picture painted in the Child Gauge 2012 is one of urgent need. [...]
Perhaps the most graphic illustration in the report is a map showing the areas in which children suffer the most deprivation across the highest number of measures. Gold is good; blue is bad. Almost the entire eastern part of the Eastern Cape - the area in which this newspaper circulates - is dark blue and is easily the biggest part of the country coloured that way. The report is an urgent pointer for government and civil society to the work that must be done to give the children of South Africa - and of this region in particular - a fighting chance...
Read the full text here.
Government grants - the poor have a right to state support
From: Weekend Post
Date: 26 March 2011
Recent articles in national newspapers have resurrected the myth of 'dependency' and social grants. On this occasion it is highly regarded intellectuals and former senior government officials who are recycling the stigmatising myths about the country's poor.
A typical view proffered is that citizens who exercise their entitlement to income maintenance from the state are feckless 'dependents' and work shirkers. They further argue that the 15 million people in receipt of income maintenance grants should be compelled to work by linking their right to income maintenacne grants to 'production and training'.
This is commonly referred to as 'workfare', a popular policy with its roots in the right-wing backlash to welfare. They contemptuously recite the right-wing mantra that these vital entitlements of citizenship are mere 'handouts'.
But academic evidence presented by Oxford University's Centre for the Analysis of South African Social Policy is that the poor in fact have the strongest attachment to the labour market, with 82% of impoverished people indicating that they would retain a job - even if it was not satisfactory.
The problem is not an unwillingness to work. On the contrary, there are no jobs, as 60% of respondents in the study reported. The respected British social theorist Richard Titmuss drew attention to the 'diswelfares' of a failed labour market that only the political agency of the state can remedy...
Read the full text here.
Government to ease job-seekers plight
From: Sunday Times
Date: 19 April 2009
The government is forging ahead with plans to dish out cash to the country’s estimated two million jobless.
The dole — known internationally as a state grant for jobseekers — is one of six income support schemes under investigation by the departments of social development and labour and the national Treasury. [...]
Deputy director-general for social security, Selwyn Jehoma, said the dole would only be paid to those who were prepared, willing and able to acquire skills and take up a job. “Such income support must therefore be conditional and built on the principle of a social contract between government and the beneficiary,” he said. He emphasised that unemployment and poverty were South Africa’s two biggest challenges. “The truth is that people are in poverty now and we may be asking them way too much to wait until jobs are created.” A dole system, according to Jehoma, would alleviate the sharing of a child support grant among members of households. “It defies logic to think that we can give a child the grant and leave the adult excluded, and still have the child’s future secured in terms of nutrition and education,” he said.
Jehoma pointed out that two social attitudes studies conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council had shown that between 65% and 75% of middle- and high-income South Africans supported the introduction of a dole, and were prepared to pay “marginally” higher tax rates to fund it. “The studies also indicate that such middle- and high- income people are aware of the benefits of such a broader social safety net.”...
Read the full text here.
Honouring the pact with SA's children
From: Business Day
Date: 18 December 2008
The African National Congress (ANC) is planning to radically increase the social welfare net, say recent newspaper headlines — a move that could result in many South Africans being “looked after by the state from cradle to grave”.
This is not news. The state has been planning an increase in the social security net for some time, and implementing increases, although at a glacial pace.
Certainly, the child support grant has slowly been extended from seven years in 1998 to 15 years this year. There have been various announcements that the grant would be increased to the age of 18, most notably a resolution from the midyear ANC policy conference in 1997. There has been considerable resistance to the idea from the treasury, which suggested in various affidavits opposing the extension of the grant that discriminating against teenagers is entirely reasonable. Children can always leave school and work, and after all, there are the further education and training colleges.
There is much less resistance to the idea among ordinary South Africans than among the chattering classes. For the March 2008 HSRC Policy Brief — No sign of a dependency culture in SA — Michael Noble and Phakama Ntshongwana sounded out ordinary people on the issue. “There was … general agreement about the need for government to spend more money on social grants for the poor,” they write, “even if it means higher taxes.” Though the “non-poor” group was slightly more reluctant to support this, 59% still agreed. Nearly 63% of those in work (and therefore either actually paying tax or at least closest to the prospect of paying tax) supported the proposition...
Read the full text here.
A picture of deprivation and despair
From: Sunday Times
Date: 2 March 2008
New research has mapped out parts of the country where children experience the worst - and best - standards of living based on income, employment, education, care and living environments.
The 10 worst municipalities for children to grow up in South Africa are Engcobo, Insika Yethu, Port St Johns, Ntabankulu, Mbhashe, Emalahleni, Mbizana, Nyandeni and Qaukeni - all in the Eastern Cape - and Msinga in KwaZulu-Natal.
The research was conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and the Centre for the Analysis of South African Social Policy at Oxford University, and is based on information gathered during the 2001 census, which was specifically mined for facts that highlight child deprivation...
Read the full text here.
Public Matters
From: The Mail and Guardian
Date: 30 June 2006
There was a time, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern noted to his public servants last year, when those who had an interest in policymaking would be given the same warning as people who make sausages - "don't look too closely at how they are made".
Happily, today's policymakers are increasingly realising the importance of examining various ingredients of policymaking, particularly the evidence-based approach. [...]
What the experts say: Gemma Wright, Deputy Director, Centre for the Analysis of South African Social Policy (CASASP), University of Oxford, United Kingdom “By placing independent research evidence at the heart of the policymaking process, evidence-based policymaking ensures that effective use is made of scarce resources, and that the government is seen to be acting in an informed and transparent way. However, evidence can only identify the nature and extent of social problems, and point to possible policy solutions. It is then the role of the government to make policy choices. Once policies have been formulated they should be piloted and independently evaluated to explore “what works” before the policies are rolled out. Academics play a crucial role in producing independent evidence and have a duty to ensure that the research is of a high quality.”
Read the full text here.
South African Minister asks for colloquium at Oxford on social policy
From: University of Oxford news releases
Date: 10 May 2006
A senior delegation of Government Ministers from South Africa has visited Oxford University for a colloquium on social policy to help the evolving democracy tackle a range of pressing issues...
Read the full text here.
Tackling pockets of greatest poverty in South Africa
From: Blueprint (the newsletter of the University of Oxford)
Date: 20 April 2006
Detailed information about the different ways poverty can be measured has been published to help policy makers target the poorest areas of South Africa more accurately. Oxford University researchers have compiled the 'Provincial Indices of Multiple Deprivation' (PIMD) at ward level for each of South Africa's nine provinces...
Read the full text here.
Deprivation indices paint fuller picture of unmet need
From: Statistics South Africa news
Date: 13 April 2006
Poverty is most commonly quantified in relation to the income and expenditure of an individual, household or group of people.
More developed approaches to poverty measurement take into account the social wage, which can include state provision of subsidies and services, such as water or housing, at reduced or no cost.
In 2000 Statistics SA published a path-breaking study, which extended the definition of poverty to include "the denial of opportunities and choices most basic to human development to lead a long, healthy, creative life and to enjoy a decent standard of living, freedom, dignity, self-esteem and respect".
Building on this approach, a team of academics and researchers drawn from Stats SA, Oxford University and the Human Sciences Research Council has developed an approach to the measurement of poverty in South Africa that takes into account income and material deprivation, employment deprivation, health deprivation, education deprivation and the quality of the environment in which people live...
Read the full text here.
Please sir, can we have more?
From: The Mail and Guardian
Date: 30 May 2003
Zola Skweyiya says it is time to reflect on how South Africa is ensuring that its social services truly benefit children in need. Speaking at the launch of child protection week, Skweyiya, the Minister of Social Development, focused on the socio-economic conditions in which children continue to live.
This is not surprising in a country where, according to the minister, at least 18-million South African children live in poverty and 1,5-million are orphans born of the HIV/Aids pandemic.
Child mortality figures reflect that 45 children out of every 1 000 live births are likely to die before their first birthday.
A year ago the government released the long-awaited report of the Committee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africa.
Auspiciously, the public hearings on the report will be held in 10 days' time.
Since its publication, the report has been in the public domain and the clamour for a more comprehensive security package for children has grown substantially, with calls for something more in line with both our constitutional and international obligations on children's social security rights.
A number of organisations will be attending the hearings to make representations. Among them is the Alliance for Children's Entitlement to Social Security (Acess). Organisational membership of the group, which is committed to ensuring a comprehensive system of social security for children, has grown more than threefold over the past year. Acess now has more than 400 member organisations.
Many of these are working at the coalface and are more than familiar with the extent of poverty in communities. They have come forward either to make submissions at the hearings or to attend them in support of Acess.
The wellbeing of children is recognised as a barometer of social progress.
The commission of inquiry's recommendations, particularly the introduction
of a basic income grant and the extension of the child support grant to
children of up to 18 years, were encouraging developments.
However, since the report's publication there have been repeated obfuscations
and delays by Cabinet regarding the acceptance and implementation of many
of its recommendations.
In its efforts to make a comprehensive package of social security for children a reality, Acess backs the report's package of recommendations, including cash grants, benefits and free and subsidised services.
Poor people should not have to choose between using their limited income, including what they receive from social security, for basic services that should be free or subsidised.
A 15-year-old boy from the Western Cape who contributed to Acess's Child Participation project put it well: "My father is working but he earns very little. The problem is he has to buy food, pay people who lent him money, and pay our school fees."
Skweyiya said in his launch speech that one of the practical steps the
government was taking to alleviate conditions of hardship was the provision
of free education to millions of schools. This may well be the objective
of the current schooling policy, but the reality is completely different.
Exemption from school fees is obtainable, but not without duress. Many
schools do not make illiterate parents aware of the exemption policy and
in instances where they are aware, they often have to overcome the resistance
of school principals and governing bodies before winning exemption.
Some of the children Acess spoke to told depressing stories of extreme
discrimination because their parents could not pay school fees.
It should also be noted that despite a fairly high enrolment rate, the
recent financial review of education reported that there are still about
300 000 children not in educational institutions; many are outside the
system because of disabilities.
In next week's hearings, the focus must fall on the tangle of red tape children must cut through to gain access to benefits.
Underpinning this argument are statistics which indicate that while the child grant has been accessible to children under six years, about 45% of children in this age group have managed to secure the grant.
Acquiring the necessary documentation, more specifically identity documents and birth certificates, from the Department of Home Affairs, is a considerable burden on poor families.
The financial outlay — transport for the several visits to a home affairs office and the cost of photographs — is often beyond the means of these families. This point should also be seen in the context of the 49% of children in South Africa without birth certificates.
A study undertaken in the impoverished Mount Frere area in the Eastern Cape found that of 54 children eligible for the grant, only 11 applications were made by caregivers, of which only four were successful — less than 7%. In most unsuccessful applications, caregivers were unable to obtain the correct documentation.
Prior to 2001, when the Social Assistance Act's regulations were amended, it was possible to use alternative documentation to apply for grants. These are now prohibited.
As mentioned by Skweyiya in his speech, the government has made progress in the battle to eliminate the poverty in which the majority of our children live. Many of these are indeed victories for the government.
However, given the vastness of the problem, we still have a long way to go.
Laura Pollecutt is media liaison officer for Soul City and an active member of Acess.