By A'eysha Kassiem
More than half of South Africa's children live in households with monthly earnings of R800 or less.
This and other alarming statistics are part of the latest compilation of reports, the South African Child Gauge 2006, released by the Children's Institute at UCT.
The institute uses national data and re-analyses it to provide statistics relating to children in various categories such as poverty, access to education and water and electricity.
According to the report, a poverty line of R800 a month per household is regarded as an "ultra poverty line".
In the same year, nearly 13,5 million children lived in households with an income of R2 500 or less a month.
"It is therefore of great concern that more than half of South Africa's children, which number 10 million out of 18 million, were living under these circumstances in 2005," says the report.
While the Western Cape was better off than other provinces, statistics still indicated that about one in every five children in the province lived in very poor households.
Limpopo was found to have the most children living in households with a monthly income of R800 or less with 74 percent, followed by the Eastern Cape with 73 percent.
The Free State and KwaZulu-Natal both took third place at 60 percent followed by the North West (58 percent), Mpumalanga (57 percent), Northern Cape (49 percent), Gauteng (29 percent) and the Western Cape (18 percent).
The Western Cape also out-performed most of the other provinces in terms of various categories of monthly household incomes.
"Only 12 percent of (all) children lived in households with reported monthly earnings of more than R6 000. There were big provincial variations, with the more urbanised provinces having relatively low proportions of their populations living below the ultra poverty line.
"The poorest provinces were found to be those with large rural populations and little access to employment opportunities.
"Limpopo and the Eastern Cape represented the most poverty-stricken profiles with close on three-quarters of children living in households with monthly earnings of R800 or less," says the report.
Black children at 64 percent were found to be in the most dire circumstances, followed by coloured (24 percent), Indian (15 percent) and white (4 percent) children.
"(This) presents the picture in respect of population group, again demonstrating the continued effects of apartheid policies into the present.
"A mere 1 percent of African children were living in households with earnings of R16 000 or more a month compared to 29 percent of white children."
The institute also looked at the number of children living in households where parents were employed. In 2004, the General Household Survey indicated that 42 percent of all children in the country had an employed parent living with them while 59 percent of children had employed adults (relatives etc) living with them.
Varying figures across South Africa were stark.
"Children in the Western Cape were the most likely to live with employed parents (70 percent) or any employed adult (86 percent) while children in Limpopo were least likely, as only 29 percent lived with an employed parent and 42 percent with any employed adult."