Circumstances leading to the establishment of child-headed households.

It  is estimated that 2,3 million children today in South Africa are orphaned mainly due to HIV/AIDS.As a result most child-headed households exist .The confounding rise in the number of orphans due to HIV/AIDS has left many children in child-headed households. Most research on child-headed households in South Africa reveal that there are as a result of HIV/AIDS. However there is a danger of assuming that all child-headed households exist only because of the AIDS phenomenon. This paper investigates the circumstances leading to the establishment of child-headed households. The study on which this paper is based was carried out in Thulamahashe circuit, Bushbuckridge district, Mpumalanga. The paper is based on qualitative phenomenological research with 20 children in grades 10 and 11 who live in child-headed households. In the study it was revealed that although HIV/AIDS is a major factor leading to the establishment of child-headed households, there are also other factors such as migrant labour, failure of the extended family to absorb orphaned children, urbanization, poverty and being abandoned by parents that lead to the existence of such homes