INFANT MORTALITY RATE PER 1,000 OF THE WHITE, COLORED AND DEFICIENT POPULATION IN THE BLOEMFONTEIN AREA. AVERAGE NUMBER OF PEOPLE, ROOMS AND INDEX OF CONFUSION PER BLACK FARM HOUSEHOLD IN OFS - 1989.
INTRODUCTION
- DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS
- URBANISATION
- FUTURE TRENDS
- MIGRATION PATTERNS
- Temporary Movement
- Permanent movement
On a district basis, however, a reasonable inverse correlation between the number of men in the age group 15-64 and the population's average annual growth rate is quite evident. Calculated as the number of males absent or present in an area as a percentage of the number of males presumed to be in the area.
ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
For example, while the real GGP per capita of the rest of South Africa reached R3 262 in 1990, Region C. On average, the GGP per capita of people in the inner peripheral areas was only R5 3 236 compared to R5 865 R in the rest. of South Africa.
INCOME
White income Income per black Income per household (1991 per household (1991 (monthly rand) monthly rand) (monthly rand) monthly rand). White income Income per black Income per household (1991 per household (1991 (monthly rand) monthly rand) (monthly rand) monthly rand).
EXPENDITURE PATTERNS
Micro patterns
Non-metropolitan areas include villages and natural and rural areas throughout Region C. In 1985, households in major urban areas accounted for as much as 44.5% of total cash expenditure in Region C. This is an indication of improvement in financial situation. well-being of the community as a whole.
Households in this township spent a greater proportion of their income on food and other necessities than anywhere else in the region. In sharp contrast to the Botshabelo situation, black households in the Goudveld were better off in 1985 than anywhere else in the region. The percentage of income spent on food in the townships around the Goudveld was significantly lower than the average for black households in the region.
EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT
LABOUR FORCE, PARTICIPATION RATES AND DEPENDENCY RATIOS
The above trends correlate closely with the male:female composition of the population in the respective sub-regions. The number of persons each potential labor force must support is measured by the dependency ratio. When inspecting dependency ratios in the region, table 22 shows an almost constant ratio for the region between 1980 and 1990.
Both can be largely attributed to the absence of income earning individuals from the region due to lack of opportunities. Those who are most dependent on the income of recipients in the region are young people (from 1 to 14 years old). 2 It consists of all persons in the age group from 15 to 64, excluding working persons.
EMPLOYMENT PER SECTOR; UNEMPLOYMENT
The importance of the second largest sector, mining, remained stable, while that of the largest, community and social services, increased from 29.5% in 1980 to 32.8% a decade later. Important to note is that the limited increase in the relative contribution of manufacturing to employment (from an already low base) underscores one of the most glaring of the region's economic problems. These problems are particularly urgent in light of the decline in the contribution of the agricultural sector and increasing urbanization.
The size of the informal and subsistence agriculture sector is difficult to determine with any reasonable degree of accuracy. An initial way this happens is that people involved in informal activities often classify themselves as unemployed, and therefore part of the economically active population. Unemployment was particularly high in subregion Cl, where after an increase of 6.8 percentage points in the rate over the past decade, 15% of the de facto supply of labor in the subregion could not find work in the formal sector.
HEALTH AND MORTALITY INDICATORS
- NUTRITION STATUS
- INFANT MORTALITY
- MORTALITY RATE OF THE POPULATION IN GENERAL
- MORBIDITY
- HEALTH INDICATORS
The fact that the incidence of lung disease is almost entirely confined to the black and colored sectors of the community is a clear indicator of the prevalence of poverty among groups in the region. In what follows, data from both reports are presented to provide a broad overview of the status of child health and health care in the region. The educational and occupational status of the husband, independent of the status of the mother, are determinants of infant mortality.
A quarter of the babies 4-6 months old did not receive any complementary feeding with solid food (porridge, porridge or other mashed food). In rural areas, only half of the mothers gave birth in a health facility, compared to 85%. Nevertheless, in the long term the index of child mortality by age of the mother indicated a downward trend in child mortality for this region.
LEVEL OF EDUCATION
The figure for people of color (a small percentage of the total population in the region) is unfortunately very disappointing.
HOUSING
A V AILABILITY OF DWELLING UNITS
QUALITY OF HOUSING
It shows numbers that can only indicate a very poor quality of life and which are certainly much higher than the comparable figure for white households. It also shows that the southern sub-region is the worst in terms of overcrowded living conditions for farm workers. With the exception of the Western Cape, the overall figure for Region C is the best, although it is still only half of what it should be.
ACCESS TO SAFE DRINKING WATER
Tables 50 and 51 provide data on the walking distance to safe drinking water in the rural and urban areas of the region. They show the stark differences between different sub-regions, but also indicate that most people are within 15 minutes or less walking distance of safe water.
ACCESS TO SANITATION FACILITIES
What is particularly worrying in the Goudveld metro is the large number of people in Thabong (Welkom) who appear to currently have no sanitation (about 100,000 people). This situation can be explained in terms of the massive influx of people into the area between 1991 and 1992, which increased the population of Thabong. The figures in the following table are for the villages and dense settlements of QwaQwa.
In the remaining areas, the majority of people rely on wells, a small portion of which have been improved. Given the above-mentioned difference in definition on the adequacy of sanitation, Table 56 reflects Chapman's findings regarding sanitation in rural areas in the OFS (excluding homelands). It shows a much less pleasant picture than that of the urban situation and an alarmingly high number of people still using open land in most rural sub-regions of the region.
ACCESS TO ELECTRICITY FOR HOUSEHOLDS
Towns and Total Number not % not Total Number not % not Towns electrified electrified electrified.
ACCESS TO EDUCATION
It is important to note that 93.4% of primary schools under the supervision of DET in the Orange Free State are agricultural schools. This figure should be compared with the national average, where 79% of primary schools are under the control of DET farm schools. In stark contrast, only 55% of black children in the region were cared for in pre-schools, but 31.2% of a smaller number of black children were cared for.
These numbers must be compared to the fact that white preschoolers made up 7.5% of the total white population in OFS. As for DET, which is the largest represented department in the region, 18.9% of teachers in 1988 had no teacher training; this figure fell to 11.6% in 1991. A comparison of the matriculation results of each of the education departments represented in the region at the time gives some indication of the quality of the results in each of these departments.
ACCESS TO HEALTH FACILITIES
GENERAL ACCESSIBILITY OF FACILITIES
ACCESSIBILITY OF PREVENTATIVE HEALTH CARE .1 PHC mobile clinic visits to farms
- Immunisation
1 A child was considered fully immunized if all state-recommended vaccinations were given and if the immunizations were valid. Tables 73 and 74 provide data from another study (also in 1989) by Chapman on the immunization status of urban children of all racial groups in the region in 1989. It also shows the remaining disparity in immunization status between black children and children from other groups.
ANTE-NATAL AND NATAL CARE
The next table (Table 76) indicates what the source of supply reported in the previous table was. It appears that even in rural areas care was predominantly from a source trained in modern medical care. Most births among black women in rural areas took place at home (66.0%) or in a hospital (33.0%) (Table 77), while in urban areas more than 70% of births were in a hospital (Table 78).
The family was responsible for supervising births in rural areas in 54.9% of cases, while traditional midwives supervised only 10.3% of cases (Table 79). In urban areas, black women giving birth were assisted by medically trained persons in more than 75% of cases investigated (Table 80).
14. CONCLUSIONS
WHAT IS THE LARGER PICTURE IN REGION C?
- Data sources
- Data Gaps
- Poverty levels
- Poverty alleviation programmes
This means that employment and unemployment figures for other groups in the region are either very fragmentary or non-existent. Some access may be reported in relation to infants and children, detailed in the health sections of this report. Although the region also exhibits the pattern of public transport provision that emerged in the apartheid era – transporting people between residential settlements and workplace – data on this pattern do not provide any meaningful indication of people's general access to public transport.
It was not possible in the time available to investigate the role of subsidies in the lives of the general population, and especially the poor. Little has been done in this area within the OFS, as mentioned in the introductory comments to this section. Although several anti-poverty programs are known to be running in the region, it was not possible to obtain reliable information on their extent in the time available.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bureau of Market Research, 1991, The minimum and supplementary living standards of non-whites residing in the main and other selected urban areas of the RSA, Research Report 181, Pretoria. 1991 b, An Overview of the Gross Geographical Product (GDP) of the Developing Regions of South Africa. Khotseng MB, A study of the development of technical and vocational education in a Black community in South Africa with special reference to QwaQwa.
Household living standards in the major urban centers of the RSA, Fact Sheet no 84, Port Elizabeth: Institute for Planning Research. Potgieter JF, 1993: Household living standards in the major urban centers of the RSA, Fact Sheet no 94, Port Elizabeth: Institute for Planning Research. South Africa (Republic of), Province of the Orange Free State, Estimate of income and expenditure for the financial year ended March 1991.
