- In the Eastern Cape, just over 1.9-million children get a child support grant. Yet about a quarter of kids living here are stunted, meaning they dont grow like they should because they dont get enough healthy food.
- What does this say about the value of these grants and the time from when they kick in? And what are political parties going to do about it, with the elections just a week away?
- Come with health reporter Zano Kunene to a rural part of the province, where he meets Emihle Ngeseki and her baby, Athande, to find out what happens when government grants are not enough.
In todays newsletter , Zano Kunene looks at why the child support grant needs to be increased . Sign up.
A rooster crows, waking baby Athande from her afternoon nap.
She lets out a loud shriek and starts to cry, while her young mother, Emihle Ngeseki, hushes her.
Its been just over a year since Ngeseki, 18, gave birth.
Shes cradling Athande on a bed held up by a stack of four bricks on each of its corners in the one-room hut where they live, next to another rondavel and an add-on where her mother and four siblings sleep.
Outside, the roosters scuttle around the sandy grass as a dog sniffs the ground in search of leftover bones around the rondavel nestled on the hills of Lusikisiki, about 30km north of Port St Johns in a rural part of the Eastern Cape.
Ngeseki puts Athande in a white puffy jersey and lays her down on the bed.
The only money Ngeseki and her family have to live on are five child support grants for the children under 18 in the household.
But its not nearly enough.
At R530 a grant, it comes to a monthly income of R2 650. Of that, just over R500 is spent on baby Athandes needs, like nappies, body wash, formula milk, clothes and transport to get to the clinic for her check-ups or childhood immunisations .
From whats left, the Ngesekis have to cover school transport for the other children, contributions to a stokvel (a community-based savings scheme) and a funeral policy, and groceries.
They spend roughly R1 400 on food: rice, mealie meal, fruit, cabbage, oil, sugar, potatoes, flour and soup food items that the Household Affordability Index shows are the ones women choose to buy for their families first when money is tight.
Says Ngesekis mother, Thandeka: By the end of the month all were left with is pap and rice.
An election, a social grant and a poverty lineThirteen of the 15 political parties whose manifestos Bhekisisa analysed for the Centres election tool considered social grants important enough to include in their policies for South Africas future.
The child support grant in particular is too little, many say.
And theyre right.
South Africas food poverty line the minimum amount needed to buy a months healthy food for one person is R760. At R530, the monthly grant for child support is almost a third below that benchmark.
Its especially here in the Eastern Cape that theres a dire need: almost three-quarters of children younger than 18 survive on child support grants in the province.
Grants for children work to reduce food insecurity in places where people have little money, research from Brazil and Mexico shows. It holds here at home too: a study from Mqanduli, a town in OR Tambo district, found that when households get a child support grant, children are far more likely to have enough healthy food every day and so are able to grow and develop normally, than in households without a grant.
Why grants need to be increasedTo really fight malnutrition among children in the Eastern Cape, the Human Rights Commission office in the province recommended in 2022 that the social development department should up the grant to the food poverty line. This is similar to the findings of a study commissioned by the social development department last year, which showed that R23-billion more than the available R77-billion would be needed to top up the grant to that level. (The government has set aside between R81-billion and R90-billion a year for the grant over the next three years.)
But even if the grant is increased to match the food poverty line, it wont ensure other basic needs like transport, hygiene and clothing are met, the report adds , and will mean theres less money for other grants like the National Student Financial Aid Scheme , the incoming National Health Insurance and early childhood development programmes , which are all important in childrens basic needs .
Moreover, grants should be given to pregnant mothers already, some groups say , because it can help them to eat healthy and get regular check-ups so that their babies can develop well.
Allowing women to get the child support grant from a
