According to a study done by the Municipality of Cape Town, a total of 405 babies will die before their fist birthday. One out of seven children in South-Saharan Africa will be AIDS orphans by the year 2005. Those children who survive face a lack of income, a higher risk of malnutrition and disease, and the breakdown of family structure. By the end of 2001, more than 200 000 children had lost their mothers due to AIDS. (PACSA, 1999).
According to the United Nations in 1999, AIDS has shortened the life expectancy in some African nations by an average of seven years. In Zimbabwe, life expectancy has dropped from 61 years in 1993 to 49 in 1999. The next few decades may see it fall as low as 41 years. .
In Africa, the disease has had a heavy impact on urban professionals-educated, skilled workers who play a critical role in the labor force of industries such as agriculture, education, transportation, and government. The decline in the skilled workforce has already damaged economic growth in Africa, and economists warn of disastrous consequences in the future.
All African countries described as Less Developed Countries, are in stage 2 of the demographic transition, with a high crude birth rate, and a relatively large number of young children making the base of the population pyramid very broad. The large percentage of children have poor services, such as schools, and hospitals. Do to the deaths of the economically active adults, the country will be left with minors and seniors. This will place a greater financial burden on the state to provide for pensioners and orphans. The mining industry will suffer since it is dependant on labor from South African rural areas and other neighboring African countries, where the AIDS rate is the highest in the world. HIV/AIDS infection is apparently advancing to all levels of South African society, which could possibly result in the infection of skilled labor, which is both difficult and costly to replace.
