DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Human Development

Individual and Society

www.wits.ac.za/coe-human

2nd Floor, School of Public Health, University of the WitwatersrandYork Road, Parktown, Johannesburg 2193, South Africa

Director: Professor Linda Richter

Children in South African Families: lives and timesA new book puts the South

African family – which

since 1994 has undergone

dramatic changes – under

the spotlight. It argues

that to better meet the

needs of South Africa’s

children, there is a need

for a deeper and more

sensitive understanding

and response to the many

different kinds of families

in which children are

being raised today.

Labour migration, HIV and

AIDS, socio-economic and other

challenges have changed the

structure of South African families.

Absence, and in some cases, the

death of parents has created new

forms of families in which children

live and are raised.

At root is a concern for the

children. Many children in South

Africa have to deal not only with

typical childhood developmental

issues; they also confront enormous

contextual and environmental

challenges – legacies of both the

past and the present – that are

beyond their control. Families can

provide the support they may need

to navigate these challenges.

But what makes families work?

And what are the effects that

changes in family structure have on

children – their schoolwork, their

future prospects, their sense of

belonging and identity?

Children in South African

Families: lives and times challenges

the notion that the nuclear family

is the dominant family type,

highlighting instead the wide

diversity and complexity of

family forms in South Africa,

including the children who live

in them.

Within the context of complex

and unpredictable family forms, a

one-size-fits-all approach to “family”

through social policy and services

fails to serve all South African

children equally, irrespective of

race, (dis)ability, gender, migrant

status, locality and socio-economic

conditions.

The book is a valuable resource

for policy makers and practitioners

alike – recognising as it does,

that families are different and

that family and parenting-support

policies and programmes should

reflect the lives and times of the

children of South Africa. n

“A family is like a

forest; when you are

outside it is dense, when

you are inside you see

that each tree has its

place.”

Children in South African Families: lives and times edited by Professors Makiwane, Nduna and Khalema is published by Cambridge Scholar Publishers . The book project was made possible through a grant from the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Human Development.

Prof. Monde Makiwane is a Chief

Research Specialist in the Human and

Social Development (HSD) research

programme at the Human Sciences

Research Council (HSRC) in Pretoria.

Together with Mzikazi Nduna (University

of the Witwatersrand) and Nene Ernest

Khalema (University of KwaZulu-Natal)

he has edited Children in South African

Families: lives and times.

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