Transforming the Present

1
Transforming the Present Protecting the
FutureBriefing to Portfolio Committee on Social
Development

• 13 November 2002

2
Current Poverty

• 22 million people or 53 of the population live
  on average on less than R144 p/month
• 2 in 3 children live in poverty
• 25 of children under 5 have severe to moderate
  stunting
• 10 of Africans are malnourished
• 3.1 million workerless African households (1999)
  1.9 million in 1995
• Long term structural unemployment 38 of
  economically active population are unemployed

3
Current Poverty contd

• South Africa is one of the most unequal societies
  in the world
• 21,9 of households reported hunger in 1999
• The poor have particular difficulties in
  accessing healthcare and education because they
  do not have even the most basic income for
  transport, food and basic clothing

4
Current Social Grants
Grant Amount Current beneficiaries
Old Age Pension R640.00 1.9 million
Child Support Grant R140.00 1.8 million
Disability Grant R640.00 700 000
Care Dependency Grant R640.00 47 000
Foster Care Grant R460.00 117 000
Grant in Aid R140.00
Total 4.6 million
5
Gaps in the Current System

• No income support for poor children between 7-18
  years
• No general social assistance for households where
  no-one is employed
• Over 13 million people live below the poverty
  line with no access to social security

6
Gaps in the Current System contd

• Most adults (81) and children (76) live in
  households without pensioners, so they are less
  likely to benefit from any grants paid to
  pensioners.
• Therefore our social security system is neither
  comprehensive nor adequate.

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Taylor Committee Conclusions

• Lack of policy to address income poverty has been
  a constraining feature of South Africas
  socio-economic programmes
• The committee therefore recommends that an
  appropriate social security concept for South
  Africa must prioritise the needs of people
  without any incomes, with insufficient incomes or
  who are engaged in informal activities

8
Conclusions to address the Poverty Gap

• The committee has formulated a comprehensive
  social protection system that enables the
  attainment of positive-sum policy
  interventions, rather than narrow policy
  trade-offs between social and economic policy
  objectives.

9
Conclusions contd

• The committee believes that by creating greater
  income security the poor, who are currently
  trapped in survivalist and low-income informal
  work, become empowered to risk pursuing
  higher-return activities that can break their
  cycle of poverty.

10
Recommendations contd

• To address income poverty, and underpin the
  Comprehensive Social Protection framework as a
  whole, the Committee has recommended a
  comprehensive and integrated medium-to-long-term
  framework for income support.

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Recommendations contd

• The CSP framework would simultaneously address
  the constitutional and socio-economic imperatives
  through emphasising two aspects

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Comprehensive Social Protection

• ensuring that all citizens have a minimum
  acceptable standard of living through a social
  protection package, enabling them to participate
  and advance in social and economic life, thus
  reducing socio-economic constraints to
  sustainable growth in South Africa

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Comprehensive Social Protection

• Providing people with their socio-economic
  rights, thus enabling them to enjoy their
  democratic rights. As such comprehensive social
  protection, by providing universal coverage, thus
  embeds an important form of social citizenship
  and could be seen to form a central component of
  the democratic States contract with the people.