Social Policy in South Africa: The challenges of poverty, inequality and exclusion

Abstract

South Africa is currently emerging from a political and socio-economic crisis. A political faction largely based on patrimonialism threatened to destroy the economy and thus social service delivery. With the recent election of Cyril Ramaphosa as State President a new start has been made to build a successful economy which can act as a base for pro-poor policies. This process will however not be easy. Although South Africa is known as the welfare leader in Africa, with 45.5% of its population receiving welfare grants, these social grants are not large enough to alleviate poverty, and almost 54% of the population remains under the poverty line. The National Planning Commission of South Africa is attempting to institute a comprehensive social security floor to cover all possible needs of the poor and excluded, but with the numbers cited above this remains a difficult undertaking.