SA life expectancy decreases

Did you know that the life expectancy of black South Africans nearly equaled that of Europeans during the last decade of Apartheid? Did you know that the black population nearly trebled during Apartheid? Did you know that black South Africans had the highest per capita income and education levels in Africa during Apartheid?

At the start of the year 1900, the number of African South Africans was found to be 3,5-million according to the British colonial government census. By 1954, the African population had soared to 8,5-million -- and by 1990, there were a full 35-million.

In the decades prior to the official policy of apartheid, (which was started in 1948), the average life expectancy of African South Africans was only 38 years.
However, during the last decade of the apartheid era from 1948 to 1994, the average life expectancy had risen to 64 years -- on a par with Europe's average life expectancy. Moreover, the infant death rates had by then also been reduced from 174 to 55 infant deaths per thousand, higher than Europe's, but considerably lower than the rest of the African continent's.

DID YOU KNOW THIS No, of course you didn't….because your view of evil has already been defined.

Andre, this make for interesting reading. But it doesn't take away from the fact that Apartheid was indeed an evil system driven by bigots and white supremacists.

But the point you make is a very valid one - if the Apartheid government could improve life expectancy, why can a free and democratically elected government not do the same?

Something is rotten in the state of Azania.

I echo 'concerned citizen' the new administration should have been able to maintain the pace, they inherited the facilities and the bank accounts among other things.

Here's the truly terrifying thing - there's still no clear indication of a change-of-heart among South Africans toward safer sex practices. According to the latest data, more than 1,000 of our brothers and sisters are dying every day, and 1,300 are becoming infected every day. You don't need matric maths to understand that the epidemic is getting worse.

The landslide vote for a self-confessed philanderer (that's someone who screws around) to the presidency was our way of raising a middle finger to the world, and to the epidemic. Unfortunately the virus doesn't care what we say and think - it only cares what we do. And boy, does it LOVE what we do.

An epidemic is like a parastatal - it needs skillful management, or else we all pay the price. The long-term fiasco of our (so called) prevention campaigns, and the continuing cock-ups with the procurement and dispensing of ARVs, will shape our nation for a century - there's no longer any doubt about it.

I would propose that we change our national flag to show a condom stapled to a letter (so the staple renders the condom useless). The letter can be filled with empty rhetoric about how deeply our government is committed to our health and welfare. And no, this isn't a metaphor, it actually happened.

At least there are no shortages of monuments to Thabo Mbeki and Manto Tshabalala Msimang - you can see them being erected by the thousand, every time you drive past a cemetery.

What about the correlation between the increasing amount of violent crime in SA and the decreasing life expectancy...?

"At least there are no shortages of monuments to Thabo Mbeki and Manto Tshabalala Msimang - you can see them being erected by the thousand, every time you drive past a cemetery." Very powerful image, Alastair, and all too sadly true.

I think that one of the terrible legacies of the apartheid government was that it made the masses very distrustful of the institutions of the state. Although this is understandable, it is partly responsible for the terribly legacy of the ANC. If you destroy or don't respect the institutions of the state, you destroy the very fabric of society -- lawlessness reigns. This is so deeply embedded in the ANC's psyche that I fear it will never change - or change only too late. The ANC and its followers think that they are above the law, not accountable, and thus that their behaviour has no consequences. This failure to take responsibility for one's actions is now part of the national psyche -- everyone else gets blamed for our problems. But, as Alastair has also pointed out, the virus will make us pay for our actions -- Unfortunately, it is not only the rapist and the philanderer who contract HIV, but their innocent victims.

Andre Scheepers on November 19, 2009, 4:09 pm Andre, I have also read these stats somewhere. What radical stats. Are they absolutely true. If so, I would then understand clearer the comment I heard by an old black man on TV a while back. He said he had a better life during apartheid. I found this almost unbelievable. So with our modern medical wonders we are going the wrong way surely. We should be living longer. Ella, I agree with you. These dooses are so busy blowing smoke up each others asses and patting each other on the back that they can't see the damn house in on fire.

I'd be more than a bit sceptical about statistics during the Apartheid period.I can't imagine anyone going round with a clipboard recording every death in the Bantustans. At least now things are open and papers like M & G are better able to comment on what's happening.

I'm not so sure I'd be making such comparisons between the two periods as the rest of you without robust figures.

I wouldn't want to absolve the current government of responsibility for its part in the current crisis, but it is worth noting that the biggest reason for this drop is HIV-related deaths, and the pandemic did start to have a real impact just as the apartheid government were on the way out, so ANY government in the same time-frame would show increasing mortality and a decrease in life-expectancy [that is, this data alone doesn't show how the apartheid government would have addressed the full brunt of the pandemic].

Again though, pretty much nobody disputes that the government's response could have led to a far less serious situation, and Aids-denialism is responsible for a lot of evitable damage.
Thing is, the impact of HIV/Aids is heaviest in the poorest, least resourced, least educated communities. Those communities are as poor and isolated from assistance BOTH as a direct result of apartheid policies that left them especially vulnerable AND post-apartheid policies that increased the gap between rich and poor while mismanaging healthcare resources and persistantly underspending money allocated to healthcare.
Denying or exclusively emphasising either half of that picture is self-evidently counter-productive.

Can't argue with cold hard facts. Don't think the race card can be pulled here either. The grim reaper doesn't see colour.....guess the only people we can possibily blame is the ANC. I wonder who is responsible for more deaths: apartheid or the ANC?

Andre, when you say "black South Africans had the highest per capita income and education levels in Africa during Apartheid", That is quite an ignorant statement, You mean that education that made the older generation into the perfect machinery for your economy and not for the advancement of their own people! Why do you think the Rand was always on par with Dollar? Beacuase we(whites) had all that GDP and Income, only used to better the lives of the minorites, while we thrived at the exploitation of the dark race, Dont tell that education BS, the only reason it was lower(life expectancy) before the implementation of apartheid, which I doubt is accurate. this statistic was mainly based on areas that had white population. And why "kill more of them you had free labour?

There are three types of lies namely: Lies, Damned lies and Statistics.

And no the ANC can not be blamed for a bunch of ignorant people who refuse to use condoms, that is the real reason for such a low life expectancy in this beatiful country of ours. Check your facts straight. HIV is the real killer, Not ANC. We all see ads talking about HIV/AIDSs daily, who do we blame when this Ignorant people(I dont mean Black people necessarily) don't wanna listen.

No as to fear that damn statistic, If you take Aids out the equation that number would way above 55.

There is three types of lies namely: Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics. To highlight this, Take HIV out the Equation, That will be ten years on top of that 48. It is only those who g with HIV/AIDS that are making it so low. If you have safe sex and know your partner, This should totally not be applicable to you at all. Lets face it, More than 60% of all people infected with disease, regrettably saying so, Got infected out their own Ignorant and carelessness.

HIV is the real killer not even crime, if you believe statistics Murder rates is a downhill. 49.6 in 2000 to 37.3 in 2008.

To that old man who believes his life was better in Apartheid, the odds is that he he does not have a tertiary qualification. And the reason he believes life was netter in apartheid was because he did not mind being a 2nd class citizen and doing the garden, working in the mines ... there list is endless. We all know the types of jobs that were Reserved with so-called highest education in AFRICA.

I think what andre is trying to say is the ANC government until recently did nothing to educate the people on safe sex and on top of this denied its impact on our society. Another point is that in some cultures it seems acceptable to rape and is considered a mans right. Until this way of thinking is corrected the HIV/Aids will escalate. I am not sure about the stats Andre gave are correct as the apartheid government probably did not bother to include the black South African. The bottom line men, is keep your zipper up and if necessary take a cold shower -not afterwards though!

What a joke !