Economic and Social Trends in Townships and Informal Settlements
Strikingly, the proportion of households having no income at all—4.1 and 5.7 percent in TS and IS, respectively, in 2002—fell sharply in both urban settlement types to 1.6 percent or less by 2010. Poverty headcounts have fallen significantly. Except in IS, the poverty headcount has decreased significantly in both urban and rural areas (table 3.4).15 The main explanation again relates to the expansion of social-grant recipients. According to Statistics South Africa’s Income and Expenditure Survey (IES) 2005/06, 14.7 percent of South Africa’s population lived on less than the US$1.25 a day in PPP 2005 prices (Stats SA 2008). This figure fell to 9.2 percent in the IES for 2010/11 (Stats SA 2012). Rural areas showed the largest improvement, seemingly helped by extended coverage of social grants and remittances. While the poverty headcount (measured as US$2.50 a day in PPP 2005 prices) also fell in both TS and OUA, it marginally rose in IS, from 42.5 percent in 2005/06 to 42.7 percent in 2010/11—consistent with the decline in average consumption per capita in IS (Stats SA 2008, 2012). The lack of progress in IS again mirrors the enormous pressures of rural urban migration and of out-migration of the more-successful inhabitants of the IS.
Disadvantages of Single-Headed Households In 2010/11, female-headed households accounted for 39 percent of all households and about 43 percent of total population in South Africa (Stats SA 2012). Roughly 59 percent of all female-headed households were living in urban areas. The ratio of female-headed households to total households rose in South Africa between 2005/06 and 2010/11, and this change was more pronounced in T&IS (table 3B.10). Single-headed households are more highly concentrated in rural areas than in urban areas. In South Africa, there were about 3.9 million single-headed households16 with children in 2010, equally distributed between rural and urban areas, as shown in table 3.5 (Stats SA 2011a). However, 61 percent of rural households are single-headed, relative to 42 percent of urban households. Within the urban areas, single-headed households are most concentrated in T&IS. About 1.2 millionsingle-headed households live in T&IS (representing more than 90 percent of all T&IS households). Overall, the vast majority (86 percent) of single-headed households had a female head. More than half of South African children now live in single-headed households. The percentage of children in single-headed households rose in rural areas as well as in all urban settlements (table 3.6). As a result, more than half of all children (51.7 percent) nationwide lived in single-headed households in 2010, predominantly in female single-headed households (Stats SA 2011a). The proportion of children living in female single-headed households was the highest in rural areas (54.5 percent), followed by TS (44.5 percent) and IS (40.6 percent). Only 6.4 percent of children lived in male single-headed households in 2010—reflecting not only the tendency of many urban men to maintain a rural wife and children but also the fact that most orphans are paternal orphans. Economics of South African Townships • http://dx.doi.org/10.1596/978-1-4648-0301-7
77