SA birthrate to fall by 2040

28 January 2012
Vuvu Vena

FOR young mother Sikelelwa Tsotsi two children are  the reasonable limit if they  are to receive the best quality of  life.
Tsotsi is but one of many women who fit the results of a study  released by the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR)  this week which states that “the  fertility rate will drop below two  births per woman by 2040”.
The 28-year-old, who married at  26, has a seven-month-old daughter and plans to have her second  and last child in 2013.
Tsotsi said besides choosing to  pursue her studies before starting  a family, she did not want to have  a child out of wedlock. 
Tsotsi herself is one of four children, but the costs of raising children were not the same then as  they are now, she said. 
“You can’t really manage to  have more than two, at least they  have each other and you can look  after them and give them the best  in life,” she said.
Most of her friends, she said, do  not even dream of having a second child.
While Tsotsi is a sales support  manager and her husband also  holds a managerial position at a  gas company, the couple could be  expected to feel they can afford  more than two children.
But there are other factors. 
“The environment and location  where you raise your child also  play a big role. Where you stay,  where you educate them can all  be managed better with two children,” she said.