Die verskriklike werklikheid van armoede

Een van die kernoorsake van sosiale uitsluiting is armoede. Armoede ontneem kinders van hulle regte op oorlewing, gesondheid en voeding, opvoeding, deelname en beskerming teen benadeling, uitbuiting en

diskriminasie (UNICEF 2004b:2). Couture (2000:42-43) wys daarop dat armoede die ontwikkeling van kinders erg kan strem. “Five or six years of poverty in an adult life may be painful but endurable. Five or six years of poverty in the life of a child influences a third of that child’s formation.” Die gevolg is dat armoede dikwels ’n blywende negatiewe invloed het op kinders se toekomsvisie vir hulle lewens. Armoede is dus meer as net ’n gebrek aan geld:

Children living in poverty experience deprivation of the material, spiritual and emotional resources needed to survive, develop and thrive, leaving them unable to enjoy their rights, achieve their full potential or participate as full and equal members of society. This definition suggests that the poverty children experience with their hands, minds and hearts is interrelated. Material poverty – for example, starting the day without a nutritious meal or being forced to engage in hazardous labour – hinders cognitive capacity as well as physical growth. Living in an environment that provides little stimulation or emotional support to children, on the other hand, can remove much of the positive effect of growing up in a materially rich household. By discriminating against their participation in society and inhibiting their potential, poverty not only causes children suffering – it also disempowers them.

(UNICEF 2004a:18). Wat die situasie van kinders in hierdie wêreld verder benadeel is die feit dat “[c]hildren are disproportionately represented among the poor, since the least developed countries tend to have the youngest populations, and income-poor families tend to have more children than richer ones” (UNICEF 2005b:12). Hierdie disproporsionele verdeling blyk duidelik uit die volgende tabel wat die kinderbevolking as ’n persentasie van die totale bevolking in 2004 van die verskillende groeperinge van lande19 toon (:12).

GROEPERING VAN LANDE ONDER 18 ONDER 5

Geïndustrialiseerde lande 21% 6%

Ontwikkelende lande 37% 11%

Mins ontwikkelde lande 49% 16%

Wanneer kinders in armoede gebore word en opgroei, word hulle lewens dikwels gekenmerk deur onder andere ’n gebrek aan basiese voeding, onvoldoende gesondheidsorg en gebrekkige toegang tot basiese dienste en onderwysgeleenthede. Die volgende statistiek, saamgestel uit twee UNICEF publikasies (2004a en 2004c) toon duidelik hoe erg kinders in die inligting-era se lewens deur armoede geraak word en hoeveel hulle as gevolg daarvan ly:

• 400 miljoen kinders, dit is een uit elke vyf, het nie toegang tot skoon water nie; • meer as 500 miljoen kinders, dit is een uit elke vier, het geen sanitasiegeriewe nie;

• 3 900 kinders, meer as een kind per minuut, sterf elke dag as gevolg van ’n gebrek aan skoon water en voldoende sanitasie;

• 270 miljoen kinders het nie toegang tot mediese dienste nie;

• daagliks sterf meer as 29 000 kinders voor hulle vyfde verjaardag, dit is ’n totaal van 10, 6 miljoen per jaar;

• akute lugweg infeksies, diarree, masels en malaria is die hoofoorsake van ongeveer 7 uit elke 10 sterftes by kinders onder vyf in ontwikkelende lande. Wanvoeding dra by tot ongeveer die helfte van hierdie sterftes;

• baie babas se lewens word negatief geraak omdat meer as 500 000 vroue elke jaar sterf as gevolg van komplikasies met die geboorte van die baba;

• in sub-Sahara-Afrika is 29% en in Suid-Asië 46% van die kinders onder gewig; • 150 miljoen kinders onder vyf jaar is ondervoed;

• 30% van die wêreld se kinders leef op minder as 1 Amerikaans dollar per dag; • selfs in die rykste lande leef 1 uit elke ses kinders in ernstige armoede;

• 640 miljoen kinders, dit is 1 uit elke drie, het nie toereikende onderdak nie; • meer as 600 miljoen kinders leef in huise met meer as 5 mense per kamer; • meer as 121 miljoen kinders het nie toegang tot primêre onderwys nie;

• een uit elke vier kinders het nie toegang tot televisie, radio, koerante of ’n telefoon nie;

• baie kinders se geboortes word nie geregistreer nie en hulle beskik dus nie oor amptelike dokumentasie van hulle identiteit nie en kan daarom dikwels geen amptelike hulpverlening ontvang nie. “According to the latest UNICEF (2005b:37) estimates, on average over half – 55 percent – of births in the developing world (excluding China) each year go unregistered, a proportion that rises to 62 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa. In South Asia, the share is higher still, at 70 per cent. Almost half the children in the world who are denied their right to a legal identity at birth live in this region: In Bangladesh, only 7 per cent of all children are registered at birth. There is wide variation in levels of birth registration, from the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, where virtually 100 per cent of births were registered in 2004, to Afghanistan, Uganda, and the United Republic of Tanzania, where the rate is less than 7 per cent.

Die verskriklike werklikheid van armoede raak die lewens van kinders die ergste in die mins ontwikkelde lande wat in die woorde van Castells die ergste “black holes of informational capitalism” in hierdie wêreld is. Die risiko’s waaraan hierdie kinders blootgestel is, word die duidelikste geïllustreer deur die onder-vyf sterftesyfer en die swak prestasie ten opsigte van die voltooiing van primêre opvoeding.

In 2004, 4.3 million children – one out of every six live births – died before the age of five in these countries alone. Although under-fives in the least developed countries make up only 19 per cent of the world’s under-fives, they account for over 40 per cent of all under-five deaths. Of those who live to reach primary school age, 40 per cent of boys and 45 per cent of girls will not attend school. Of those who enter primary school, over one third will not reach grade five; and around 80 per cent of all children of secondary school age will not attend secondary school.

(UNICEF 2005b:14) Die invloed van “black holes of informational capitalism” binne-in lande op die lewens van kinders kom ook al duideliker na vore. UNICEF (2005b:18) het die volgende bevind:

In every developing country where disaggregated data by household income are available, children living in the poorest 20 per cent of households are significantly more likely to die before the age of five than those living in the richest 20 per cent. Latin America and the Caribbean is the region with the highest inequalities in household income in the developing world; countries in this region also have among the highest inequalities in child mortality. The country with the greatest inequality in under-five mortality is Peru, where children living in the poorest quintile are five times more likely to die before their fifth birthday than children from the wealthiest 20 per cent of the population. Though disparities in under-five mortality rates are not as sharply pronounced in other regions, they can still be marked. On average, a child born into the poorest 20 per cent of households is three times more likely to die than a child born into the richest quintile in East Asia and the Pacific region, two and a half times more likely to die in the Middle East and North Africa and around twice as likely in the South Asia and CEE/CIS regions.

Hierdie selfde tendens kom na vore ten opsigte van kinders se deelname aan primêre onderwys. In die verband wys UNICEF (2005b:19) daarop dat “[c]hildren of primary school age from the poorest 20 per cent of households in developing countries are 3.2 times more likely to be out of primary school than those from the wealthiest 20 per cent. Moreover, 77 per cent of children out of primary school come from the poorest 60 per cent of households in developing countries; this disparity is even greater in Latin America and the Caribbean (84 per cent) and Eastern and Southern Africa (80 per cent).”

Suid-Afrika is een van die lande wat inpas in Castells se siening dat in die inligting-era die proses van sosiale insluiting en uitsluiting ongelykhede en polarisasie bevorder en daartoe lei dat daar binne in ’n land “black holes of informational capitalism” ontstaan. Op grond van syfers wat in 1996 gepubliseer is, sê Castells (2000b:124):

South Africa has an extremely unequal income distribution, by some measures the most unequal distribution in the world. It has a Gini coefficient20 of 0.65, compared with 0.61 for Brazil, 0.50 for Mexico, and 0.48 for Malaysia, and coefficients of 0.41 or less for the advanced industrialized countries. The bottom 20 percent of income-earners capture a mere 1.5 percent of national income, while the wealthiest 10 percent of households receive fully 50 percent of national income. Between 36 and 53 percent of South Africans are estimated to live below the poverty line. Poverty is overwhelming concentrated in the African and coloured population: 95 percent of the poor are African, and 65 percent of Africans are poor, compared with 33 percent of the coloured population, 2.5 percent of Asians and 0.7 percent of whites.”

Die South Africa Human Development RVBeport 2003 van die United Nations Development Programme (2003:42) het op grond van syfers van 2002 die volgende bevind:

Africans are the most impoverished segment of the population, constituting 91.1 per cent of 21.9 million poor in South Africa. Compared to the size of their population, 56.3 per cent of Africans, 36.1 per cent of Coloured people, 6.9 per cent of White people and 14.7 per cent of Indian people are estimated to be living below the national poverty line in 2002. The poverty rate among the African population living under the national poverty line was 8 times the poverty rate among the White population in 2002.

20 “The Gini coefficient is a summary statistic of income inequality that varies from 0 (in the case of perfect equality where all households earn equal income) to 1 (in the case where one household earns all the income and other households earn nothing)” (Schwabe 2004:30).

Na 10 jaar van demokrasie is twee van die uitstaande kenmerke wat die Suid-Afrikaanse samelewing karakteriseer armoede en ongelykheid (Landman 2003:3). Dit wil voorkom asof die probleem eerder groter as kleiner geword het. The Human Science Research Council (HSRC) het tot die slotsom gekom dat “the

proportion of people living in poverty in South Africa has not changed significantly between 1996 and

2001. However, those households living in poverty have sunk deeper into poverty and the gap between rich

and poor has widened” (Schwabe 2004:1). ’n Verslag wat Statistiek SA in Oktober 2002 vrygestel het,

bevestig dat “in real terms, average black ‘African’ household income declined with 10% from 1995-2000, while white household income was up 15%. Households with less than R 670 per month income – mainly those of black African, coloured or Asian descent – increased from 20% of the population in 1995 to 28% in 2000” (in Nel, R W 2005:110).

Om te bepaal hoe ver huishoudings onder die armoede inkomstevlak leef het die HSRC ’n formule ontwikkel om wat hulle die “poverty gap” noem te bepaal. Die “poverty gap” meet “the required annual income transfer to all poor households to bring them out of poverty.” Hiervolgens het die “poverty gap” van R56-biljoen in 1996 gegroei tot R81-biljoen in 2001. Dit dui daarop dat die arm huishoudings oor die tydperk nog dieper in armoede ingesak het. “The poverty gap has grown faster than the economy indicating that poor households have not shared in the benefits of economic growth. In 1996 the total poverty gap was equivalent to 7.7% of gross domestic product (GDP); by 2001 it had risen to 8.3%” (Schwabe 2004:2). Die feit dat die armstes huishoudings nie gedeel het in die ekonomiese groei wat die land beleef het nie, word ook gereflekteer deur die groei van ongelykheid tussen arm en ryk in Suid-Afrika. Om ongelykheid te meet het die HSRC die Gini koëffisiënt gebruik en volgens hulle berekeninge het Suid-Afrika se Gini koëffisiënt van 0.69 in 1996 tot 0.77 in 2001 gestyg. Waar ongelykheid in Suid-Afrika in die verlede met rasseskeidslyne ooreengekom het, word dit al hoe duideliker dat ongelykheid nie meer rasbepaald is nie, want die gaping tussen ryk en arm het binne elke groep toegeneem soos in die volgende tabel van die Gini koëffisiënt vir elke bevolkingsgroep aangetoon word.

1991 1996 2001 Swart 0.62 0.66 0.72 Blank 0.46 0.50 0.60 Bruin 0.52 0.56 0.64 Asiër 0.49 0.52 0.60 Totaal 0.68 0.69 0.77 (Schwabe 2004:2)

Alhoewel die grootste armoede nog steeds onder swartmense voorkom, word in hierdie navorsing daarop gewys dat die blanke bevolking se Gini koëffisiënt van 0.6 besonder hoog is vir ’n groep wie se opvoedingsvlakke en beroepsprofiele ooreenstem met die van samelewings in hoogs geïndustrialiseerde lande.

Uit bogenoemde navorsing is dit duidelik dat Suid-Afrika een van die lande met die grootste ongelyke verspreiding van rykdom is en dat hierdie ongelykheid saam met armoede in die beginjare van die demokratisering van Suid-Afrika eerder toegeneem het as afgeneem het. Hierdie tendense word bevestig deur navorsing wat gedoen is deur die Centre for Social Science Research aan die Universiteit van Kaapstad. In ’n artikel waarin hulle verduidelik hoekom hulle die Gini koëffisiënt bepaal met ’n statistiese metode wat effens aangepas is, is hulle uiteindelik slotsom: “[A]t the end of a lot of careful imputation work…our results confirm the major findings from the existing literature in that we find small increases in poverty for the poorest of the poor between 1996 and 2001, more marked increases when a higher poverty line is used and unambiguous increases in inequality” (Ardington et al 2005:26).

Prakties beteken dit dat die gaping tussen baie ryk en baie arm al groter word en dat dit die rykes is wat al ryker word terwyl die armes al armer word. Capgemini en Merrill Lynch (2005:7) het bevind dat die aantal Suid-Afrikaners met netto finansiële bates van ten minste $1 miljoen in 2004 met 21.6%, die tweede hoogste persentasie groei in die wêreld, tot 37 000 gegroei het. In 2005 het hierdie groep van die bevolking met ’n verdere 15.9% gegroei, die vierde hoogste persentasie groei in die wêreld (Capgemini en Merrill Lynch 2006:9). Hierdie selfde tendens word bevestig deur Towers Perrin (2006) se Worldwide Total

Remuneration Report 2005-2006. In hulle ondersoek, wat 26 lande betrek het, het hulle bevind dat

uitvoerende hoofde in Suid-Afrika 82 keer meer verdien as die gemiddelde fabriekswerker, terwyl dit in 2000 net 54 keer meer was (Van Tonder 2006:1). Waar uitvoerende hoofde in Suid-Afrika gemiddeld op nege na die meeste verdien en menslike hulpbronbestuurders op agt na die meeste verdien, verdien fabriekswerkers op vyf na die minste (:1). Die verdeling van inkomste tussen werkers en uitvoerende bestuur in Suid-Afrika is van die skeefste ter wêreld. Ekonomiese groei bevoordeel dus in sekere opsigte die rykes meer as die armes, want die rykes vermeerder hulle rykdom teen ’n vinniger tempo as die armes. Dele van Suid-Afrika is dus deel van wat Castells die “Fourth World” noem en baie kinders se lewens word intens geraak en selfs bedreig deur die armoede van hierdie “Fourth World.”

Volgens Amoateng en ander (2004:xi) leef meer as die helfte van Suid-Afrika se kinders in arm families. “Analysis of the 1999 October Household Survey showed that 59% of children aged 0-17 years are poor. This means that more than 10 million children in this age range live in poor families” (:40). In navorsing van Idasa waarin gekyk word na verskillende formules om die aantal kinders wat in arm huishoudings opgroei te bepaal, is bevind dat minstens 52% en moontlik soveel soos 75% van Suid-Afrika se kinders in armoede leef (Coetzee & Streak 2004:25). In die National Food Consumption Survey is bevind dat “at the national level, 52% of children aged 1 to 9 years experienced hunger. A further 23% were at risk of hunger. Only 25% appeared to be food secure. Moreover, the survey found that in the rural areas, a significantly higher percentage (62%) of children experienced hunger than in urban areas. Households and children age 1 to 9 in informal urban and tribal areas, as well as on commercial farms, were the worst affected” (:23). In hierdie navorsing word verwys na ’n ondersoek van Caelers en andere wat bevind het dat “42.6% of households in South Africa marshal so small an income that they are in “food poverty”, unable to afford regularly even a basic subsistence diet (:89). Uit bogenoemde statistieke is dit duidelik dat die

voedingstatus van ’n groot aantal kinders nie net onvoldoende is nie maar dat hulle eintlik hulself in ’n krisis bevind. “That is, many South African children experience full-blown nutritional deprivation, rather than only under-nourishment, as they don’t even meet basic essential levels of access to food” (:89).

Volgens Amoateng en ander (2004:xi) affekteer armoede kinders “by reducing their chances of living beyond their first five years, by stunting their growth, rendering them vulnerable to infectious diseases and disabling injury, reducing their confidence and hope in the future, and handicapping their capacity to develop to their full intellectual potential.” Volgens The State of the World’s Children 2007 (UNICEF 2006:108) is in Suid-Afrika 15% kinders by geboorte ondergewig, 12% van alle kinders onder 5 jaar ondergewig, en 25% van alle kinders onder 5 jaar toon tekens van belemmerde groei op grond van hul lengte-vir-ouderdom ratio. Verder word baie kinders geraak deur die feit dat 35% van die Suid-Afrikaanse bevolking, 21% in stede en 54% in plattelandse omgewings, nie toegang tot voldoende sanitasie fasiliteite het nie (:112).

UNICEF gebruik die “under-five mortality rate (U5MR)”21 as die belangrikste aanwyser van die vlak van die algemene welsyn van ’n land se kinders en om die vooruitgang wat in ’n land behaal is, te bepaal. Hiervolgens was Suid-Afrika se U5MR 68 in 2005 (UNICEF 2006:101). Daar was dus ’n negatiewe groei vanaf 1990 toe die U5MR 60 was (:104). Die ongelykhede in Suid-Afrika word verder bevestig deur die volgende statistiek van die Population Reference Bureau (2005:1) soos vir middel 2005:

• U5MR vir die armste vyfde van die bevolking is 87; • U5MR vir die middelste vyfde van die bevolking is 49; • U5MR vir die rykste vyfde van die bevolking is 22.

Hierdie ongelykhede in die Suid-Afrikaanse bevolking word bevestig deur UNICEF se berekening dat die U5MR vir Swartmense 4 keer meer is as die van Blankes ([Online]. Available from: <http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/southafrica.html> [Accessed 23 July 2005]). Op UNICEF (2006:101) se rangorde tabel ten opsigte van die vlak van die algemene welsyn van elke land se kinders lê

21 “Under-five mortality rate – Probability of dying between birth and exactly five years of age expressed per 1,000 live births” (UNICEF 2006:105). Volgens UNICEF (2006:137) het die gebruik van hierdie aanwyser die volgende voordele: “First, it measures an end result of the development process rather than an ‘input’ such as school enrolment level, per capita calorie availability, or the number of doctors per thousand population – all of which are means to an end. Second, the U5MR is known to be the result of a wide variety of inputs: the nutritional health and the health knowledge of mothers; the level of immunization and ORT use; the availability of maternal and child health services (including prenatal care); income and food availability in the family; the availability of clean water and safe sanitation; and the overall safety of the child’s environment. Third, the U5MR is less susceptible than, say, per capita GNI to the fallacy of the average. This is because the natural scale does not allow the children of the rich to be one thousand times as likely to survive, even if the man-made scale does permit them to have one thousand