Social Welfare Policy in South Africa

Horman Chitonge and
Ntombifikile Mazibuko

Social Welfare Policy
in South Africa

From the Poor White Problem
to a "Digitised Social Contract"

PETER LANG

New York • Bern • Berlin

Brussels • Vienna • Oxford • Warsaw

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Chitonge, Horman, author. | Mazibuko, Ntombifikile, author.

Title: Social welfare policy in South Africa: from the poor white problem to a "digitised social contract" / Horman Chitonge and Ntombifikile Mazibuko.

Description: New York: Peter Lang, 2018.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018030977 | ISBN 978-1-4331-5334-1 (hardback: alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-4331-5808-7 (ebook pdf) | ISBN 978-1-4331-5809-4 (epub)

ISBN 978-1-4331-5810-0 (mobi)

Subjects: LCSH: Public welfare—South Africa. | South Africa—Social policy.

South Africa—Economic policy. | Powerty—South Africa.

Classification: LCC HV450.5.C45 2019 | DDC 361.968—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018030977

DOI 10.3726/b14286

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de/.

© 2018 Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York

29 Broadway, 18th floor, New York, NY 10006

www.peterlang.com

All rights reserved.

Reprint or reproduction, even partially, in all forms such as microfilm, xerography, microfiche, microcard, and offset strictly prohibited.

About the authors

Horman Chitonge is an associate professor and the head of African Studies at the Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town. He holds a Ph.D. in development studies from the University of Natal. He has published extensively on issues of water, agrarian political economy, poverty, and social welfare. His recent publications include Economic Growth in Africa (2015), Beyond Parliament (2016), and Customary Land in Africa (2018).

Ntombifikile Mazibuko is an emeritus professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and is currently supervising and mentoring postgraduate students in social work and social policy. She holds a Ph.D. in social work from the University of Illinois. She served as a professor and deputy vice chancellor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and as vice chancellor at the University of Zululand. She has published extensively on welfare and social policy.

About the book

Social Welfare Policy in South Africa examines the South African government’s response to social welfare challenges during and after apartheid. The book analyses social welfare policy reforms in South Africa from the social contract perspective. Through a critical analysis of the major social policy shifts in the country, the book illustrates that the provision of social welfare services is the most concrete way of fulfilling the terms of the social contract, especially in democratic South Africa. The book offers a useful approach to understanding the changes in the social welfare philosophy and practice that occurred when the country transitioned from minority to majority rule during the 1990s. By tracing the development of social welfare policy interventions over time, Social Welfare Policy in South Africa draws attention to the broader political, historical, social, and economic factors that have influenced social welfare policy in the country.

“Social welfare is at the heart of a democratic South Africa. Social Welfare Policy in South Africa is a long overdue book—a discipline’s charter in a single volume that critically analyses the development of social welfare and policy in South Africa, past and present. Written by two eminent South African scholars in the field, this book is going to become a seminal work: a must-read for any inquisitive and discerning person, whether a social worker, sociologist, NGO employee, government or civil service official, political scientist, or historian, who is interested in the how and why South Africa emerged from colonialism and apartheid into a caring society. An important saga which says much about the soul of South Africa.”

—Donal P. McCracken, Senior Professor, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

This eBook can be cited

This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.

Table of Contents

Figures and Tables

Foreword by Ndangwa Noyoo

Preface

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Chapter 1. Social Welfare and the Social Contract

Chapter 2. Paradigms and Approaches to Social Welfare

Chapter 3. Precursors of Institutional Social Welfare

Chapter 4. Social Welfare and the Race Question in South Africa

Chapter 5. The “Poor White Problem”: Causes, Scope and Public Response

Chapter 6. Institutionalisation of Social Welfare in South Africa

Chapter 7. The Non-­state Social Welfare Sector in South Africa

Chapter 8. The Political Economy of Social Welfare in Post­apartheid South Africa

Chapter 9. The South African Social Welfare System and the New Social Contract

Index ←v | vi→ ←vi | vii→

Figures and Tables

Figures

Figure 7.1: Composition of the NPO Sector in 1999

Figure 8.1: Trends in ANC’s Share of National Election Votes, 1994–2014

Figure 8.2: SA’s GDP Growth Rate, 1980–1999

Figure 8.3: Real GDP, GDP Per Capita and Population Growth, 1994–2008

Figure 8.4: Real GDP, GDP Per Capita and Population Growth, 2009–2015

Figure 8.5: Participation in Higher Education by Race for 15- to 29-Year-­Olds (2002 and 2015)

Tables

Table 2.1. Social Expenditure as a Percentage of GDP: Selected Countries, 2014

Table 4.1: Social Welfare Expenditure by Racial Group (1944) ←vii | viii→

Table 4.2: Social Welfare Expenditure by Race (R, 000)

Table 4.3: Population Share by Race—1910 to 1995

Table 4.4: Welfare Facilities for Children

Table 5.1: Union Government Social Welfare Expenditure, 1929–1930

Table 5.2: Poor White Households and Person in the Union and Cape Province

Table 6.1: Relevant Social Welfare Legislation since 1994

Table 6.2: Current Key Statutory Social Welfare Institutions

Table 7.1: Non-­Profit Organisation Revenue by Source and Country (1995)

Table 7.2: NPO by Type and Service Sector (1999)

Table 7.3: NPIs by Period Established

Table 7.4: NPI Sector by Type (2010–2015)

Table 7.5: Share of NPO by Type in Total NPI Sector, 2010–2015 (%)

Table 7.6: Social Welfare Services NPIs by Type, 2010–2015

Table 7.7: Categories of Social Welfare Services NPIs in South Africa

Table 8.1: Fiscal Policy Indicators (1994–2003)

Table 8.2: Public Revenue and Expenditure Profile, 2001–2018

Table 8.3: Economic Growth Trends, 1994–2015

Table 8.4: Household Annual Average Income Ratio by Race, 1996–2015

Table 8.5: Employment Ratio and Trends by Race, 1995–2015

Table 8.6: Labour Force Absorption and Participation Rate Trends by Race (1995–2015)

Table 8.7: Poverty Rates by Race (1996–2012)

Table 8.8: Trends in Elections Results (1994–2014)

Table 9.1: Features of Social Insurance and Social Assistance

Table 9.2: Social Grant Trends, 1998–2017 (R 000’)

Table 9.3: Social Grant Trends (Growth Rates 2000–2017)

Table 9.4: Trends in Social Grant Size by Type (Rand, 2005–2016)

Table 9.5: Social Grants Share by Beneficiaries and Expenditure

Table 9.6: Grant Beneficiaries by Racial Group (2017) ←viii | ix→

Foreword

Social Welfare Policy in South Africa is a welcome addition to the literature on social welfare in a broad sense and on social welfare policy specifically. This book is written by local and, more importantly, black authors who bring not only different intellectual analytical tools to their analysis of the topic but also experiences that are diametrically different from their academic peers of other races. This issue of different experiences of race groups in South Africa and particularly those in the academic environment is very important and is something that should not be glossed over or trivialised. Indeed, when the student protests unfolded across the country in 2015 and young men and women of South Africa demanded not only free and high quality higher education but also a “decolonised curriculum”, they arguably envisaged works by black scholars such as this one. Young South Africans were quite fed up with Eurocentric models that were equally peddled by mainly white academics. This state of affairs had been going on since the dawn of democracy in 1994. In this respect, many young people felt not only frustrated but alienated in many academic spaces across the country—­especially in universities that were formerly known as historically White universities (HWUs). Thus, at this juncture, a text of this nature, which examines the evolution of social welfare and social welfare policy, is not only fitting but poignant. This is because social welfare←ix | x→ and social welfare policy in South Africa emerged out of colonial and apartheid socio-­political and economic contexts where race was the preeminent yardstick in determining a person’s upward mobility. Race would be the keystone in crafting a special dispensation for whites that enabled them to live heavily subsidised by the state and enjoy a comfortable life unlike Africans, Indians and mixed-­raced people or so-­called coloureds. The authors touch on this issue and examine it in detail in Chapter 5, “The ‘Poor White Problem’: Causes, Scope and Public Response.”