The latest Review of Child Poverty and the Value of the Child Support Grant report has highlighted how the current R500 grant was not enough to support more than seven million children below the food poverty line.
According to the report conducted by the Children’s Institute at UCT, the current child support grant was too small to protect the poorest children from hunger, malnutrition and stunting.
It highlighted that even though 13 million children received the grant, more than seven million remained below the food poverty line, which stood at R663 per person per month in 2022.
In 2021, researchers found that 37% of all children in South Africa were living below the poverty line and that 27% of all children under five years were stunted.
Stunting in children reportedly resulted in children struggling to learn in school, and ultimately affected their employment prospects later, which should be a serious concern for society as a whole.
It was for this reason the report supported the call made by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the African Committee of Experts recommending an increase to the child grant.
The Department of Social Development (DSD) said it was also concerned about South Africa’s high child poverty rates as uncovered by the latest Review of Child Poverty report.
Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu stressed that they were even more concerned that the cumulative cost of children who lived in poverty and those who experienced hunger would only be realised in the future.
“That cost will be carried by the whole economy because while these children’s learning and life experiences are being shaped today, their social and economic participation prospects are likely to be dimmer in the future.
“Consequently, they are likely to experience stunted growth, remain on social assistance, and be unproductive citizens. It is in this regard we call upon development partners to intensify and better target the necessary interventions,” she said.
Zulu added that owing to the impact of the social relief of distress (SRD) grant, her department would continue working to ensure that the grant was extended beyond the deadline of March 2024.