Heartbreak of EC’S betrayed children struggling to survive

Today’s page one photograph, showing the home seven children share with their granny, is a stark visual of the reality of many children in this province. A Stats SA Living Conditions Survey, issued last year, found that two million out of 2.9 million Eastern Cape children lack basic human needs — little access to proper nutrition, adequate clothing, dignified shelter and healthcare. Their homes offer little in the way of physical protection. Going to school is such a challenge that many give up on this battle.

The Daily Dispatch investigated this report and in today’s Dispatch we bring you the results of this investigation. Our reporters heard and saw harrowing accounts from children for whom the past, present and future was and is bleak.

According to this report 78.7% of Eastern Cape children were found to be “multidimensionally poor” — meaning every aspect of their lives is shot through with poverty and deprivation. The province is ranked second poorest behind Limpopo.

Our team visited children living in homes that crumble around them; heard stories of school pit toilets that threaten to — and sometimes do — collapse under them. They also heard about the psychological and physical abuse many battle, with only older siblings or elderly grandparents to protect them.

This investigation exposes a horrific weakness in our social services system, which is meant to protect the vulnerable.

We quote social development MEC Siphokazi Mani-lusithi saying that despite all efforts by the current government and its partners, child poverty had intensified significantly in the Eastern Cape every year over the past 10.

Admitting there is a problem is surely a step in the right direction. But agreeing that all efforts made so far have done little to address the problem must mean that now we can devise a new plan to help the children of our province break this cycle of poverty.

It is pointless building new schools if it is too much of a struggle for our children to get there.

We have to address why so many young children are being raised by their grandparents.

The government has begun clamping down on corruption, so hopefully more funds will make their way into its coffers to enable the state to tackle the areas in which it has been lacking.

Surely, surely, breaking the cycle of child poverty must be a priority.

Agreeing that all efforts have done little to address the problem must mean that now we can devise a new plan to break this cycle of poverty