SITE VISIT - Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and ...

As far as the black population is concerned, it is notable that literacy does not seem to improve
employment opportunities, whereas those who have matriculated have a significantly higher
chance of obtaining work.
Poverty
The current minimum living level (MLL) has been calculated at R1 500 per capita per annum by
the Bureau of Market Research. The following table is based on that figure:
% of households living in poverty 1991
Eastern Cape 72
Northern Cape 51
Western Cape 26
Orange Free State 57
KwaZulu/Natal 57
Gauteng 23
Northern Transvaal 77
Eastern Transvaal 57
North West 53
In the former homelands, excluding Bophutatswana, more than 78% of the population live in
poverty (see Map 57). Poverty is lowest in metropolitan areas and in mining and electricitygenerating
areas. In the Northern Transvaal, which is the poorest province, areas with highest and
lowest percentages of households living in poverty are found in close proximity, the poor areas
corresponding to former homelands.
Though poverty is concentrated within the black community, there are numerous areas in the
rural interior of the Northern Cape, western Orange Free State and Eastern Cape where colored
communities have average per capita incomes below the minimum living level.
It has been noted that the black population can be divided almost down the middle, into
"insiders" - those who are employed in the formal sector at wages above the MLL and have
access to formal housing and reasonably adequate health and educational facilities - and
"outsiders", who live in poverty and have little or no access to these amenities. (See Map 58)
Indians are relatively affluent compared to blacks and coloreds, with per capita incomes of more
than treble the MLL in most districts.
Violence
An estimated 42 000 children have lost an immediate family member through political violence
in South Africa in recent years. In addition, in the Durban area, for example, 41% of youth have
lost a friend through violence, and 46% have seen someone killed. A high proportion of children
exposed to violence have long-term emotional problems such as anxiety, sleep disturbances, loss
of appetite and an inability to concentrate, and 40% of 16- to 20-year-olds say they feel tense and
nervous. This is especially true in KwaZulu/Natal where more than half of all politically related
deaths have occurred.
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