State of the Environment : South Africa - Social Environment: State IV


National State of the Environment Report - South Africa
Main Issues:	Climate	Terrestrial	Water	Marine	Social	Economic	Political	Home page

This part of the report contains the following sub-sections:
Overview	Introduction	Driving forces	Pressure	State	Impact	Response
Outcome	Linkages	Data issues	Conclusions	References	Indicators	Links

The status of the Social Environment: # 4

The Status of the Social Environment are discussed under the following headings:
The state of social and economic development		Poverty
Health	Access to health care	Indices of notifiable diseases
Main causes of death	Education	Employment

Main causes of death:

As shown in Table 5.3, the single greatest cause of death in 1990 was from diseases of the respiratory system (excluding cancer) which are related to air pollution.

Table 5.3 Main causes of death in 1999

CAUSE OF DEATH	NUMBER REPORTED	% OF ALL DEATHS
Intestinal infectious diseases	4 381	2.95
Tuberculosis	5 323	3.58
Malignant neoplasm of digestive organs and peritoneum	5 623	3.78
Endocrine and metabolic disease. immunity disorders	4 256	2.86
Ischaemic Heart Disease	9 158	6.16
Pulmonary circulation and other heart diseases	6 904	4.64
Cerebrovascular disease	10 784	7.25
Diseases of the respiratory system	13 393	9.01
Diseases of the digestive system	4 283	2.88
Perinatal conditions	7 655	5.15
Transport accidents	4 312	2.9
Homicide	4 105	2.76
Other violence	6 876	4.63

Source: Department of Health: Health Trends in South Africa 1995/6, p.93.
Please note: Percentages do not add up to 100 because minor causes are not included.

Research conducted on air pollution in the Vaal Triangle and the East Rand show that the levels of respirable particulates exceed the 24-hour health standard several times during winter.

High levels of air pollution exeeding health standards

However, the worst exposures to total suspended particulates occur in coal-burning households in unelectrified and partly electrified urban areas, and wood-burning households in rural areas. These levels of indoor pollution make total suspended particulates a mortality risk. (Terblanche, 1995).

The Institute for Futures Research estimated the infant mortality rate to be 56 deaths per 1000 live births during the period 1991-1996, and predicted that this would decline to 50 deaths per 1000 live births between 1996-2001, due to improvements in quality of life from better housing, electricity, clean water, and a drop in unemployment (South African Institute for Race Relations, 1998). However, the impact od HIV/AIDS is still largely unknown.

Education:

According to the Joint Education Trust, about 7.5 million South Africans have a schooling level of less than seven years and thus can be considered illiterate (South African Institute for Race Relations, 1998). Table 5.4 below disaggregates the enrolment numbers according to population group:

Table 5.4 Attendance at educational institutions of people aged 5 - 29

Year	Black	Coloured	Asian	White	Unspecified	Total
Full-time	8 607 232	798 801	240 187	744 843	80 510	10 471 574
Part-time	92 364	12 653	11 017	48 842	1 756	166 638
Not studying	4 866 353	608 104	137 860	440 967	54 607	6 107 891
Unspecified	296 982	37 443	9 489	43 800	16 621	404 336
Total	13 862 931	1 457 002	398 553	1 278 453	153 495	17 150 434

Source: Statistics South Africa, Census in Brief, 1998.

Only 16.4% of the adult population has achieved Standard 10 or Grade 12 (i.e. have completed secondary education to the highest level), and the largest portion of the population only received some secondary education, as indicated in Table 5.5 below.

Table 5.5 Percentage of population older than 20 years per level of education

Level of Education	Black	Coloured	Asian	White	Total
Higher	3,0	4,3	10,0	24,1	6,2
Std. 10	12,1	12,3	30,4	40,7	16,4
Some secondary	32,8	42,5	40,0	32,8	33,9
Some primary	27,8	30,7	13,1	1,2	24,2
None	24,3	10,2	6,5	1,2	19,3

Source: Statistics South Africa, Census in Brief, 1998.

Employment:

Overall, unemployment reached approximately 37% in 1997 (South African Institute for Race Relations, 1998)

Unemployment creates opportunities for survivalist and micro enterprises, usually in the informal sector. Such activities include retail outlets, taxis and household industries.

Fig 5.11 Unemployment Rates by Race, 1994-1997

Figure 5.11 Official Unemployment Rates by Race, 1994-1997

The number of people employed in the informal sector was estimated to be 900 000 in 1995 (and with growing unemployment, this figure is likely to be larger today). This figure increases to 1.6 million if domestic workers are included. Informal employment activities contribute approximately 7% to GDP, and most take place in informal settlements. (South African Institute for Race Relations, 1998).

> Social Environment: Impact..# 1

There is also information about the Social Environment in the following reports:
Metropolitan reports:
	Cape Metropolitan Council (1998 edition)	Durban Pilot Study
	Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council (1999 edition)	Greater Pretoria Metropolitan Council (1999 edition)