Mapaballo Borotho
- A UCT report has found that South Africa’s R560 child grant is far below what is needed to raise a child, leaving millions vulnerable to hunger.
- Over 573 children reportedly died of malnutrition in 2024, with most cases in the Eastern Cape.
- Child poverty rates have worsened since COVID-19, with more than 75% of children in some provinces living below the poverty line.
A new Child Gauge Report from the University of Cape Town has revealed that South Africa’s child support grant is not enough to meet the basic needs of children amid the country’s rising cost of living.
Children under 18 who qualify for a social grant currently receive R560 per month, far below the R796 minimum needed per person to afford adequate nutrition. The report concluded that many children in South Africa simply do not receive enough financial support to survive.
Dr. Aileen Carter, Eastern Cape Provincial Manager at the Human Rights Commission, said the current child grant sits below the poverty line.
She acknowledged the government’s efforts in providing the grant, but stressed that the amount is insufficient to prevent child deaths caused by severe acute malnutrition.
“We are unfortunately still seeing children dying of hunger in 2025,” Dr. Carter told Phemelo Motene on Kaya 959’s Point of View. “Last year alone in the Eastern Cape, more than 100 children died due to acute malnutrition, and nationwide, 573 children died from what we consider preventable causes.”
Dr. Carter questioned whether the child support grant and other social protection mechanisms are effectively addressing child hunger and poverty.
The report further noted that poverty levels initially declined after the introduction of the Child Support Grant (CSG) in 1998. By 2019, 33% of children were below the food poverty line, compared with 53% in 2003. However, the trend reversed during the COVID-19 lockdown, when child food poverty rose to 39%.
While poverty rates stabilised in 2021, they increased again in 2022 and remained high through 2024. The report highlighted that across all poverty measures, poverty rates were higher in 2024 than in the pre-lockdown year of 2019.
This equates to 1.2 million more children living below the food poverty line and 3.1 million more below the upper-bound poverty line compared to 2019.
Over 75% of children in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, and North West live in poverty. Gauteng and the Western Cape recorded the lowest rates, but both provinces saw sharp increases from 35% to 54% in Gauteng and from 27% to 41% in the Western Cape between 2019 and 2024.
Listen to the full conversation below:
READ NEXT: Gauteng traffic officer sentenced to life for murdering wife in front of their children
The post R560 can’t feed a child: Report reveals millions of South African children are living in poverty appeared first on KAYA 959.
