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Abstract
In the face of international pressure and local concern regarding the repercussions of the AIDS epidemic for children in South Africa, as well as the review underway of children's legislation in the country, there is much debate regarding social security provision for children in the context of HIV/AIDS. To date, the State's social security response to the impact of AIDS on children has been to focus its attention on the provision of the Foster Child Grant for orphans. Draft Children's legislation introduces additional cash grants, some of which similarly target orphans.
However, drawing on a combination of primary research and demographic projections, this paper argues against the provision of grants for orphans as a category of children distinct from other children. It argues that, given the pervasiveness of poverty across South Africa's child population, a social security system that directs interventions on the basis of children's orphanhood mistargets crucial resources; is inequitable; is located in questionable assumptions about children's circumstances; risks further overburdening the child protection system; and is not, as a whole, a cost-efficient way of adequately supporting the largest possible number of poor children who require assistance.
The paper argues therefore that the most equitable, accessible and appropriate mechanism for supporting children in the context of the AIDS epidemic would be through the extension to all children of the Child Support Grant mechanism that is currently in place. Progressive implementation of a universal Child Support Grant should be based not on providing grants in the interim to particular categories of children (such as orphans) but rather on drawing more impoverished children — irrespective of their parental circumstances — into the social security ‘safety net’.
