As government implements the staggered increase of the age limit qualification for child support grants to those turning 18 by 2012, an extra two million people are expected to be added to the social welfare pay-roll, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan announced in his budget speech last week.
This will add to the almost 14-million people who, according to the department of social development, were accessing social welfare grants of some kind as of January this year.
The number of social grant beneficiaries has increased, on average, by 6.3% in the five years up to 2009-10, upping social welfare spending on average by 12% per year. According to the Budget Review, estimated medium-term social welfare spending is expected to grow from the R89-billion announced for this financial year to almost R107billion by 2012-13.
Speaking to the Mail & Guardian, Social Development Minister Edna Molewa said this extension of the social security net, coupled with the drive to sign up more beneficiaries for social grants, was integral to fighting unemployment, rather than creating dependency on the state.
“Our studies have shown that people who benefit from grants [either directly or indirectly] are more likely to go out and look for jobs. Research has also shown that children who benefit from child support grants are more likely to stay in school because they can now buy shoes or uniforms — so these continue to be an investment in their future as well,” she said.
Half of all South Africans are under the age of 25, while 48,3% of people aged between 15 and 24 are unemployed. With increasing unemployment, social grants appear integral to government strategy, not just to lend a helping hand to job-seekers, but also to ensure economic activity in a recession.
Both government and civil society organisations appeared to agree that Gordhan’s social welfare allocation was “balanced”, considering tighter purse strings. Gordhan increased pensions, disability and care-dependency grants by R70 to R1 080, child support grants by R10 to R250 and foster care grants by R30 to R680.
But Vainola Makan of the New Women’s Movement, which picketed outside Parliament during Gordhan’s speech, said the increases were “an insult to women”.
“Women are the ones carrying the burden of job losses, going hungry so that they can provide for their families, and the R10 child support increase does not even cover inflation,” she said.
“This little relief and the prospect of short-term temporary jobs [promised by government’s expanded public works programme] will not lift women out of the spiral of chronic unemployment and poverty,” said Makan, who was also very critical of government’s lack of a “comprehensive approach to vulnerable women, some of whom are suffering ill-health and alcoholism because of the economic pressures”.
Phelisa Nkomo, advocacy programme manager at the Black Sash, said the increases were “appreciated” because they would provide a “potential economic cushion”, but had to be coupled with a “very progressive stance against corruption in the dispensing of grants”.
The Institute for Democracy in Africa’s budget unit manager, Len Verwey, agreed: “On social welfare spending, it’s never been a question of allocation efficiency but rather of operational efficiency, with corruption and ghost beneficiaries rife.”
The South African Social Services Association (Sassa), which dispenses government grants, has been racked by corruption, including the resignation of chief executive Fezile Makiwane following a Special Investigations Unit (SIU) probe into irregular tender and dispensing processes.
Molewa said her department’s efforts to clean up Sassa were hampered by labour legislation and verification procedures that took “up to 90 days” to complete. As a member of the ministerial anti-corruption committee, she said she was looking into legislation that would expedite the firing of corrupt officials. Her department was also working with the SIU on a computer screening system that would act as a “firewall” for shady grant applications — which she expects to be operational by the end of the year.