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ECS3704- PORTFOLIO-EXAM 3 FOR SEMESTER 2 YEAR 2024.
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ECS3704 FINAL PORTFOLIO
YEAR 2022 SEMESTER 1
Assessment 4
Part A: See the TUT101 on assessment criteria and essay writing. Discuss and evaluate the
pros and cons of the different social security programmes (including cash transfers) in South
Africa to address the effects of Covid-19, inequality, poverty and unemployment. We allow a
maximum amount of 2000 words. The due date is 27 May 2022. We will mark according to
the rubric below and lesson content should serve as a guide in doing the assessment.
Social assistance programmes currently provide income support to 11,8 million people. The South
African Social Security Agency is now operational, and improvements are in progress in the
administration of the Unemployment Insurance Fund, the Compensation Funds and the Road
Accident Fund.
Ending poverty and reducing inequality are central goals of South Africa’s reconstruction and
development challenge. The introduction of an official poverty index by Statistics South Africa in
2007 and a new income dynamics survey will allow progress towards eliminating absolute poverty
and reducing vulnerability to be more reliably monitored.
Poverty reduction and social protection
South Africa’s social development strategy rests on the Reconstruction and Development
Programme (RDP) adopted by government in 1994 as both a framework for policy and a
, programme of transformation in response to the inherited legacy of discrimination and inequality.
It comprised five broad programmes: meeting basic needs, human resource development, building
the economy, democratising the state and society, and implementation through improved
government coordination and planning.
Comprehensive social security and the RDP
The 1994 Reconstruction and Development Programme identified “developmental social welfare”
as one of the key elements of meeting basic needs – ensuring delivery of benefits to the poorest,
improved social insurance for the employed and unemployed, social assistance to those most at
risk, protection of the rights of children, greater community involvement and inter-sectoral
coordination. Reform of social development services during the 1990s focused on integrating the
formerly fragmented welfare services and development programmes, improving social grants
payments processes, introduction of the child support grant, and construction of new partnerships
with non-governmental and community-based organisations.
Given the legacy of fragmented government institutions and economic decline in the previous era,
the challenges of the first decade of democracy were largely about transforming government
service delivery and economic reforms. Government expenditure programmes contributed mainly
to non-income household welfare from 1993-1999,1 whereas from 2000 onwards, economic and
fiscal reforms have also yielded more buoyant income growth and employment creation.
Expansion of the social assistance safety net has been prioritised over the past decade. Largely
attributable to the phasing in of a child support grant, the number of beneficiaries of social
assistance has increased from under 3 million in 1997 to 11,8 million today, and consolidated
expenditure on welfare and social security has increased from R23,6 billion in 1997/98 (3,4 per
cent of GDP) to a projected R89,4 billion in 2007/08 (4,6 per cent of GDP). Table 6.1 illustrates
that the proportion of the poorest 20 per cent of households reporting pensions or grants as their
main source of income increased from 16,1 per cent in 2002 to 39,6 per cent in 2005.
Social grants and household welfare
South Africa’s contributory and non-contributory social security mechanisms aim to alleviate
poverty or provide temporary income support. The non-contributory components make up the
greater part of the social security system. These social assistance transfers are funded from general
revenue and are appropriated on the vote of the Department of Social Development.
Social assistance cash grants provide targeted income support to those whose livelihoods are most
at risk. The available grants are the old age pension; the disability, child support, foster care, care
dependency and war veterans’ grants; and temporary grant-in-aid relief.
South African Social Security Agency
The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) is a national public entity established in
terms of the Social Security Agency Act (2004) to administer and pay social assistance grants.
Transfer of the social assistance administration and payment service functions from the national
and provincial social development departments was effected in 2006/07.
SASSA has been established to centralise the grants payment system, promoting greater efficiency
and improved service delivery as coordination improves and administrative standards are stepped
up. About twothirds of key posts have been filled and 6 000 staff members have been transferred
from provincial offices to SASSA. Over the three-year spending period, the agency will focus on
standardising processes and procedures relating to grants approval, payment and beneficiary
maintenance services across the country.
Overall administration costs of R4,1 billion are provided for in the 2007 Budget, rising to R4,8
billion in
2009/10. Expenditure on independent payments service provider contracts, which account for
about
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