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In South Africa, children have a range of rights as set out by the Constitution and international law. Some of these are socio-economic in nature. These refer to the material conditions children live in, and the services that they should be able to receive. These rights appear in the Bill of Rights of the South African Constitution.
Everyone has a right to have access to adequate housing, health-care services, sufficient food and water, social security and basic education. Children are specifically mentioned in the Bill of Rights, and every child has the right to basic nutrition, shelter, basic health-care services and social services.
The General Household Survey indicates that in South Africa in 2005, there were approximately 3.4 million ‘orphans’ - children who had lost a biological mother, father or both parents. This is equal to 18.6% of all children in South Africa.
We define different kinds of orphan
- A maternal orphan is a child whose mother has died but whose father is living
- A paternal orphan is a child whose father has died but whose mother is living
- A double orphan is a child whose mother and father have both died
It is important to recognise that the death of a mother has different implications relative to the death of a father. The absence of a mother has greater impact on children’s lives than the absence of a father as traditionally in South Africa the women brings up the children, with the father either being unknown or absent to earn money away from home. Therefore, the death of the mother is far more devastating due to the frequent absence of fathers in children’s lives.
HIV and AIDS infected and affected children plus sibling groups are the hardest cases to find foster care for.
Some figures to highlight the South African situation
- In 2006 around 5.41 million South Africans, almost 1 out of 5 adults, were infected with HIV … including 257,000 children!
- 1,000 deaths from AIDS occur every day. Half of all deaths in South Africa, and a staggering 71% of deaths among those aged between 15 and 49, are caused by AIDS.
- UNAIDS estimates there were 1.2 million South African children orphaned* by AIDS in 2005 with 2.5 million orphaned by 2010, compared to 780,000 in 2003! Over half the population of 15 year olds are not expected to reach the age of 60. *maternal or double orphans
- By June 2006 351 702 children had received a Foster Child Grant – out of approximately 2 million. This is nearly 80,000 more children than in June 2005 – a 29% increase. Currently the grant is R620 per month.
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 Every hour 10 children under the age of 5 die! 40% are AIDS related.
- One Child Welfare social worker has an average case load of 300 - 600 children. Social Workers are one of the worst paid professions besides nurses, teachers and police officers.
- Nationally there are 25,000 new foster care cases being handled by Child Welfare alone on a monthly basis.
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