What’s the Future for SA’s Children?

by Admin · Published May 24, 2024 · Updated May 24, 2024

As the Church prepares to mark the first World Day of Children, Lois Law looks at the state of childhood in South Africa today.

In December Pope Francis announced that the inaugural World Day of Children will be held on May 25-26 in Rome. The pope’s initiative responds to the question: What kind of world do we want to leave to the children who are growing up now? Pope Francis proposed that “like Jesus, we want to put children at the centre and care for them”.

Nelson Mandela, in his address at the launch of his Children’s Fund, said: “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children. We come from a past in which the lives of our children were assaulted and devastated in countless ways. It would be no exaggeration to speak of a national abuse of a generation by a society which it should have been able to trust. As we set about building a new South Africa, one of our highest priorities must therefore be our children.”

Mandela continued: “The vision of a new society that guides us should already be manifest in the steps we take to address the wrong done to our youth and to prepare for their future. Our actions and policies, and the institutions we create, should be eloquent with care, respect and love”.

Children are the most vulnerable members of society and as such in need of special care and protection. It is the shared responsibility of parents, families, communities and government to ensure that all of our children are safe from harm and grow up in nurturing environments. Children’s rights are entrenched in Section 28 of the Bill of Rights in the Constitution of South Africa. It asserts that “every child has the right to basic nutrition, shelter, health care and social services, as well as the right to be protected from maltreatment, neglect, abuse or degradation”. These rights are interlinked and their realisation is urgent.

Quick off the mark

The very first international human rights instrument signed by the first democratically elected government of South Africa was the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Convention explains who children are, all their rights, and the responsibilities of governments to promote and protects these rights. All the rights are connected, they are all equally important, and they cannot be taken away from children.

South Africa also ratified the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child which includes special protections for the African child. The Children’s Act was written after the government accepted the United Nations Convention and the African Charter. The aim of the Act is to make sure that children are able to grow up safely and develop well, and where they are abused or neglected, that they will be helped to recover.

The Act values families and tries to ensure that they are protected and supported. It also provides for rules to ensure proper and safe after-care, crèches, drop-in centres, and child and youth care centres; and for children to consent to their own adoption. The Act also says that children are allowed to have their say and participate in decisions that affect their lives. The best interests of the child are paramount. The question to be asked in each instance is: What is in the best interests of this child?

Children living in South Africa receive protection from other pieces of legislation. The Child Justice Act applies to children who are alleged to or have committed crimes. The Sexual Offences Act applies to children who are victims of sexual offences, while the Schools Act is the law applicable to children when they are in the school environment.

Every child has the right to healthcare, nutrition, protection, education and responsive parenting, as well as basic services such as identity documents, adequate housing, water and sanitation. Realising these rights requires the participation and cooperation of numerous government departments including those of Health, Education, Social Development, Justice, Home Affairs and the Police.

The legislation, enacted to realise the constitutional entitlements of children and to provide guidelines for the care and nurture of children, is laudable. However, it must be asked: What are the present conditions of life of democracy’s children?

Pope Francis interacts with kids. The Holy Father had declared May 25-26 the Church’s first World Day of Children. (CNS photo/Alessandro Bianchi, Reuters)

Malnutrition crisis

While South Africa has the highest food security in Africa, it is acknowledged as the most unequal society in the world. Presently South Africa is in the grip of a malnutrition crisis that seriously impacts on the health of the population’s children. The UN estimates that the number of malnourished children is increasing so rapidly that by 2025 some 1,7 million children under the age of five will suffer from stunted growth. That affects the health of our children and compromises their future wellbeing

From the moment of conception, the developing child is vulnerable to the effects of substance abuse, poor maternal nutrition, poverty, and interpersonal violence. These intersecting risk factors can be avoided with appropriate psychosocial and public health interventions. However, these rights are undermined by the lived reality of too many of democracy’s children, and many of the programmes that might have addressed the problems have not been implemented. The gap between children’s rights and children’s realities is wide.

According to a UN Children’s Fund report, South Africa’s inability to escape the poverty and inequality trap is fundamentally linked to its inability to address intergenerational child poverty. Despite 30 years of pro-poor policies, six out of ten children are still multidimensionally poor. They are income-poor and deprived of health, nutrition, quality education and basic services, which are essential to their development and movement out of poverty.

As a result, it’s estimated that 38% of children under the age of five fail to thrive and realise their potential. This is particularly the case for those children from previously disadvantaged communities, those in underserviced rural areas and informal settlements, and those with disabilities. Furthermore, poverty has been a detriment to all aspects of education. This is because poverty usually comes with additional life-stressors such as lack of medical care, reading materials, poor nutrition, and living in areas with fewer resources.

The release last year of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2021 revealed that 81% of South African Grade 4 learners cannot read for meaning in any language. Further research made it abundantly clear that poverty was the strongest predictor of poor reading achievement. Moreover, it was found that the quality of a school library was a clear indicator of reading achievement.

Studies have long shown that access to strong school library programmes are the top benefit for vulnerable students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. There is a need for a comprehensive catch-up plan for 2021’s Grade 4 learners and a national-level strategic initiative to drastically increase the number of learners who can read.

Lack of school safety

Ten years after four-year-old Michael Komape drowned in a pit latrine, more than 3300 of South Africa’s 23000 public schools, particularly in the rural areas, still use pit latrines, according to government figures released in March 2023. The Department of Basic Education had committed to eradicating pit latrines by 2025, but it has already missed several previous deadlines. Quality education means access to a school environment that is safe for teaching and learning to take place, adequate school infrastructure and adequate facilities.

However, there are some gains. The Department of Basic Education’s National School Nutrition Programme aims to provide one meal a day to all learners in poorer primary and secondary schools. According to the Department’s 2022/23 annual report, the programme reached 9689300 learners in 21156 schools. Unfortunately, as yet this does not extend to children in Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres. Moreover, only 1,6 million of 11 million children aged 0-4 years are in ECD programmes.

The progressive realisation of the Child Support Grant for all children until the age of 18 is one of the successes of our democracy. About 13 million such grants were paid out in December 2023. The grant has been increased to R525 but it is still below the food poverty line of R760. It has been proposed that the Child Support Grant be made available to pregnant women from the 12th week of pregnancy.

Moral theologian and child advocate Fr Donald Dunson writes: “In the faces of our children we are given the best glimpse of humanity’s future, a preview of the world to come. This is why there can be no moral issue more unifying, more urgent, or more universal than nurturing their well-being and securing their chance to embrace the life our Creator destined for them.”

The Church’s first World Day of Children on May 25-26 is an opportunity for us to reflect on what we are doing to create a future for our children.

Lois Law is a researcher of the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office, specialising in children and youth issues.

Published in the May 2024 issue of The Southern Cross magazine