Corporal punishment still alive: StatsSA

Published May 27, 2015

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Pretoria - The latest survey released by StatsSA on Wednesday shows that 13.5 percent of children attending school in South Africa still endured corporal punishment though it has long been outlawed.

“In Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, vayakubeta (they will hit you). They don’t spare the rod and spoil the child, they still use corporal punishment,” StatsSA Statistician-General, Pali Lehohla, told reporters in Pretoria during a press briefing where he released the 2014 General Household Survey (GHS) report.

“Only Western Cape and Gauteng seem to be provinces where this kind of behaviour is low. Across time, corporal punishment seems to be dropping, particularly the biggest drop recorded in the Eastern Cape,” said Lehohla.

Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) topped the list with 21 percent each for children who attended schools where they experienced corporal punishment - which was banned in the education system in 1996. In the Free State, the figure was at 11 percent; 12 percent in Limpopo; 11 percent in Northern Cape, and 10 percent in North West. In Mpumalanga, 5.8 percent of children have experienced corporal punishment while Gauteng’s figure was at 3.3 percent. The Western Cape recorded the lowest figure at 2.8 percent.

The findings are contained in the voluminous GHS. The report measures, on a regular basis, the performance of programmes as well as the quality of service delivery in a number of key service sectors in the country, including education, health and social development, housing, household access to services and facilities, food security and agriculture.

On energy use, Lehohla said the figure of South Africans who are connected to the electricity grid has increased to 86 percent, compared to 77 percent in 2002. “Obviously, with the kinds of problems that Eskom has now, things may be up and down,” he added.

The survey found that 9.8 percent of households were still reliant on wood for cooking.

“Now, 80 percent of people use electricity for cooking and the trend is upward. It is only in Limpopo where people still use a lot of firewood,” said Lehohla.

According to the survey, since 2002, all other forms of energy used for cooking, except electricity, had declined. Gauteng experienced the largest reported electricity interruptions, followed by the Western Cape.

“These interruptions are on the up, right across except in the Northern Cape. I don’t know how they solved this problem of interruptions because they are on a downward trend,” Lehohla observed.

On water provision, the percentage of households with access to piped water increased from 85 percent in 2002 to 90 percent in 2014.

“The ratings that people assigned to this water quality is 61 percent. Interruptions on water supply have increased and this co-infection of bad things creates conditions for protests,” said Lehohla, remarking on the trend of service delivery protests.

“Limpopo and Mpumalanga show that they are not very satisfied with the quality of water. The quality is low, the interruptions are high and you can remember the protests, particularly in Mpumalanga. This is not so much a worry in Western Cape and Gauteng,” he said. The survey showed that the number of households not paying for water across South Africa has increased to 56.3 percent in 2014, compared to 33.1 percent in 2002.

In terms of provision of sanitation, Lehohla said Limpopo province was lagging behind, even though the figures had improved.

“The largest increase was in the Eastern Cape. People have organised their systems differently and they do not wait until sunset so that they can disappear (to relieve themselves). Now in the Eastern Cape too, people can perform that difficult work in a decent environment, without fearing that somebody might be watching,” said Lehohla.

It was noted that households sharing toilets experienced serious security problems, including being raped on the way to the toilets. Other problems that surfaced during the survey were hygiene and maintenance of the shared facilities.

Only 18.1 percent of households in the country had medical aid cover, and these were mostly found in Gauteng and the Western Cape.

Regarding perceived health status, the number of men who reported that they felt healthy was at 90.8 percent, in contrast to women who reflected this at 87.7 percent.

The survey found that salaries and grants were the major sources of income. “In the Eastern Cape and Limpopo, grants surpass salaries, while in the Western Cape and Gauteng we do not give a lot of grants,” said Lehohla.

On telecommunications, households with only a functional landline phones consisted of 0.2 percent of the overall population.

“It’s not surprising Limpopo took to the use of cellphones like fish to water,” Lehohla noted. “If you have to connect (via landline) in Limpopo, you had to go through a lot of hurdles. They may not have toilets, but they have cellphones. “Limpopo had the largest access to cellphones per household at 93.3 percent, and the Western Cape had the least at 64.4 percent.

Across South Africa, it was found that 83.1 percent of households had cellphones only while 12.6 percent of households surveyed had both cellphones and landline phones.

The survey revealed that a total of 55 percent of the population lived in fully-owned accommodation while 22 percent stayed in rented dwellings. Formal accommodation was at 79 percent while informal settlements had a 13-percent share.

The GHS is an annual survey that has been conducted and compiled by StatsSA since 2002. The survey is an omnibus household-based instrument aimed at determining the progress of development in South Africa.

ANA

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