By Lebone Rodah Mosima
While South Africa remains a youthful country – about 63% of its population is under 35 – its relatively small elderly population is projected to grow steadily in the coming decades, and provision must be made for the challenges associated with ageing, now.
This is according to KwaZulu-Natal Legislature Deputy Speaker Mmabatho Tembe, who was speaking in Umdoni Municipality on Thursday at a handover ceremony where gardening implements, seeds and seedlings were donated to the Imizamo Yabadala Senior Citizens Club – an organisation of more than 50 senior citizens.
The event was held on the sidelines of a Senior Citizens Parliament convened at Umzinto Town Hall.
Tembe said forecasts were clear that the number of people aged 60 and over would double by 2050, and the proportion of the population aged above 60 would rise from about 9.8% in 2022 to 15.4% by 2050.
“These trends tell us that our elderly South Africans will face vulnerabilities such as poverty and food insecurity if we don’t start implementing programmes and policies aimed at ensuring that they are protected and valued. That is why the legislature will continue having social responsibility programmes like the one we have today,” she said.
According to the Department of Health, “population ageing increases the disease burden related to chronic and multiple chronic conditions” and consequently places additional strain on the country’s already burdened healthcare system.
The phenomenon is predicted to be even more challenging on the African continent where – according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division – the population of older adults is expected to grow from 46 million in 2015, to 157 million by 2030.
Statistics South Africa has said that in 2022, roughly 9.8 % of South Africans were aged 60 or older, an increase from 7 % in 1996. More than half of the country’s elderly population is female.
The number of older persons increased across all provinces, with Gauteng (1,4 million) and KwaZulu-Natal (940 000) having the highest elderly population in 2022.
But an analysis of the numbers over time shows that the Eastern Cape consistently surpasses the share of older persons in other provinces, according to StatsSA.
“The rise in the number of elderly persons has implications for planning and policy formulation, especially regarding the social safety nets that need to be provided for them,” said the StatsSA report.
Accepting the handover from Tembe, the deputy chairperson of the Imizamo Yabadala Senior Citizens club, Mr Gumede, said that the donation from the legislature would assist the organisation to produce vegetables and so feed their families.
“Empowerment and donations enable us to continue being actively involved in passing on society’s knowledge, values and norms from generation to generation. With all our contemporary challenges, young people still look up to us as the repositories of tradition, culture, knowledge and skills. With what we have received today, we will also teach our grandchildren how to farm,” said Gumede.
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