The world is becoming increasingly unequal with 10% of the world’s population now owning 85% of the wealth. South Africa is one of the biggest contributors to world inequality with a growing gap between haves and have-nots. The social grant system was introduced in an attempt to narrow this gap but, ironically, it exacerbates it by supporting those who have relatively better education, more access to government services or who live in and around urban areas.
The Department of Social Development must be applauded for its significant achievements in providing access to social security for those who have the necessary identity and other documents required to draw the social grants. But the Department of Home Affairs needs to improve its services to the poorest of the poor in the most remote rural areas of the country to enable them to get this critical documentation.
It is in these areas that access to home affairs service points is most difficult and costly, illiteracy rates are high and most people have a limited understanding of how the process works. Without service delivery in such areas, social grant provision can exacerbate inequality by increasing the gap between those who are relatively better off, with the ability to access the system, and those who are not.
The problem of providing access to enabling documents such as ID books and birth certificates in the poorest areas is a challenging one. The most significantly affected are children in remote rural areas, particularly those not living with their biological parents or living with ill or elderly caregivers. A recent study conducted by the Alliance for Children’s Entitlement to Social Security (ACESS) found the travelling costs of repeated visits to home affairs service points prohibitive, corruption by officials rife and the requirements to get the necessary documents inconsistent and onerous.
ACESS has collected numerous real-life case studies such as this one from a report by Sonja Giese and Lauren Smith: Thandiwe is 42 years old and has lived in Nongoma most of her life. A small mud hut is home to Thandiwe and her six children. Until recently, Thandiwe’s two other children lived with their biological father outside of Nongoma. The father has passed away and, as soon as she can afford the transport, she plans to fetch the children and bring them back to her home. Thandiwe explains that she has tried four times to apply for an ID book.
She does not have a birth certificate so she used a school letter to lodge her first application. This was over 10 years ago: ”When nothing happened, I applied again”. This time Thandiwe applied at the Matekhulo home affairs office. The officials there would not accept her application. ”They said I must come with both my parents’ ID documents. I was not carrying them so my application was not processed.”
In 2006, Thandiwe went to the Mtubatuba home affairs office to apply once again. The officials gave her different information: ”You must come with someone 10 years older than you when you apply to witness for you.” In 2007 she went to the Nongoma office again to apply for an ID. She arrived prepared, with both of her parents’ ID books. This time the official said: ”You are lying … These are not your parents. They are too old to have given birth to you. Find your biological parents and come back!”
Feeling helpless and discouraged, Thandiwe left the office. She is frustrated by her many failed attempts and by the inconsistency of requirements. ”All my brothers and sisters have IDs and they are younger than me. They used my parents’ ID books when they applied for their IDs. Why is my case treated differently?”
None of Thandiwe’s children have birth certificates. Four of the eight children were born at her home and these children have no proof of birth. The other four were born at the clinic and each has a clinic card. ”The nurses at the clinic did encourage me to register the children, but I don’t have an ID, so I have not done it,” she says.
Unemployed, Thandiwe is disheartened. ”How am I going to survive if I don’t have money?”
The ACESS report recommends that the application process for official documents such as ID books be simplified and that the burden of proof for doubtful cases should lie with home affairs and not the applicant. There has to be a significant increase in the number and the efficiency of fixed and mobile home affairs service points and better use of schools and health services to educate caregivers on requirements and to ensure that every child’s birth is registered early and accurately.
Increased cooperation with NGOs such as ACESS, which represents over 1 300 children’s-sector organisations, would significantly improve the department’s reach into remote communities and to those most vulnerable and unable to access basic government services.
Education about the right to government services and to redress when faced with corrupt or inefficient officials is critical. NGOs find that applicants are being sent back and forth with a range of demands without them having any idea what is actually required by law. Extortion is common. Large information boards should be placed at all home affairs service centres explaining the requirements in local languages, including the applicable fees and the fact that no other monies should be paid at all.
These information boards should have a call-centre number (free from a cellphone) that anyone can call if they have trouble accessing the necessary documents. Every applicant should be issued with a receipt of application as a record of their transaction.
In addition to general systems reform, there are pockets of acute poverty, mostly in remote rural areas, that require urgent attention. Current state interventions are not reaching them. These communities mostly suffer in silence; they have no access to the media or influential people. To close the ever-widening gap between rich and poor and to ensure stable economic growth for South Africa, a focus on the poorest of the poor has become critical.
Réjane Woodroffe is MetAM chief economist and director of the Bulungula Incubator