The inclusion of the right of access to social security in the Constitution did not meet with wholehearted approval in South Africa. This right, however, is of vital importance for the future upliftment of the country. The present social security system is based upon a clear distinction between social assistance and social insurance. There is a gap in current social security provisions in that the unemployed middle aged individual is not covered. Unemployment itself is one of the greatest challenges obscuring the implementation of a comprehensive social security system. The Constitutional right is to have ‘access’ to social security and the amount of resources at the state’s disposal is directly related to increasing this right, although it is true that a number of available resources are misspent. The state must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of the right of access to social security. The principles of solidarity and ubuntu must be cultivated so that national social development becomes a concern for all citizens. There are numerous problems facing South Africans in attaining the goal of access to social security – even if national social development does become a priority. Budgetary constraints, poverty, unemployment, HIV/Aids and foreigners are examples of these. By making social security a priority for everyone, existing ideas (almost all of which have merit) may be converted into long-term solutions for poverty and unemployment. Currently, numerous opportunities to salvage the situation are being overlooked as a result of the lack of a comprehensive and structured plan to better the access to social security. The constitutional right of access to social security is enforceable, although the jurisprudence in this field remains underdeveloped. Conditions are currently favourable, within the country and beyond its borders, for an imaginative and concerted attempt to be made to find potential solutions. It is possible for resources to be increased and for tax benefits to be incorporated for businesses which have the capacity to contribute. The issue of defence spending is controversial, but could hold the key to lowering unemployment. Should jobs be created, it is likely that they will initially be of a temporary nature. Consequently, provisions are needed to ensure some guarantee of income in the lacuna between when a job is lost and another found. Ultimately, one thing is certain: the constitutional right of access to social security will only be complete once the people who are recipients of this right make sacrifices and create corresponding duties for themselves to ensure that the next generation of inhabitants of this country are not facing similar problems. The state’s goal should be to ensure that the basic rights which all people enjoy in terms of the Constitution (in particular the other socio-economic rights) are guaranteed for the duration of their existence, even if the level of benefits received by such people is low.

No abstract available.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Economics / This thesis focuses on sectoral growth composition, foreign debt and social welfare in selected African economies. Data for the study were obtained from International Financial Statistics (IFS), the World Bank (WB), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) annual reports, and the Penn World Table (PWT). The thesis has 5 chapters. Chapter 1 is the general introduction. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 are stand-alone related papers on social welfare, external debt, and real exchange rate. Chapter 5 is the conclusion of the study. Chapter 1 presents the background to the study, the motivating problems, the research objectives and questions, the significance of the study, the literature gaps, and contributions. The chapter ends with an outline on the organization of the study. Chapter 2 examines the impact of the composition of growth on poverty and inequality in 36 African countries. Specifically, the study demonstrates how changes in the composition of growth can affect the welfare of the segments of the population that are socially and economically deprived. While previous studies have presented different results for different continents, much of the findings show that in Africa, the primary sector is the most effective sector that improves the levels of poverty and inequality. This study re-examines this claim based on the belief that previous findings suffer from measurement bias in the estimation of parameters. This study employed a measurement approach that corrected for the observed differences. The generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation technique was adopted, and the findings were robust, showing that rather than the much-touted primary sector, the secondary and tertiary sectors are actually the main drivers of welfare improvement in the African continent. It is therefore recommended that for a sustained welfare improvement strategy, policy-making institutions in Africa should as a matter of urgency adopt appropriate industrial policy targets on the secondary and tertiary sectors with specific focus on the construction, manufacturing, mining, wholesale, retail, and hotel sectors. vii Chapter 3 investigates the impact of growth composition on external debt (ED) in selected African countries. Precisely, the study examines how each of the three productive sectors (agriculture, industry, and services) impacts on the level of ED in Africa. While many development studies have relied on aggregate output growth to investigate debt-growth dynamics, received literature shows that studies which examine the impact of growth on ED are scarce. Relying on two frameworks – “perfect capital mobility” of the Neoclassicals, and the “Dualism” theory, this study investigates the composition of the growth-debt relationship in Africa. The study applies the dynamic generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation technique to conduct its analysis. The results show that the composition of growth has significant effect on the levels of ED a country can maintain. Although, the results were lagged at different periods, the outcome suggests that the industrial (construction and manufacturing) and services sectors (wholesale, retail, and hotels ‒ WRH) are the leading sectors that drive the growth-ED relationship. The result shows more robustness when a country’s institutional quality, real interest rate, and current account balance were controlled for. Chapter 4 examines the effectiveness of real exchange rate (RER) as a policy tool for industrial diversification. Economic experts have emphasized the need for industrial diversification, especially for developing countries. However, in spite of the numerous socio-economic gains associated with industrial diversification, little effort has been made in Africa to identify and develop the sectors that achieve higher output growth for the region. The effective management of real exchange rate (RER) has provided economies with the needed tool for achieving these growth objectives. Recent empirical literature finds that undervalued RERs help countries to achieve faster economic growth, while overvaluation of the RER slows economic growth. Furthermore, recent growth studies have shown that different sectors respond differently to changes in RER. This study shows that even though many of the previous works have drawn up policy recommendations from these researches, the findings may be driven by inappropriate estimation assumptions, which inevitably results in biased findings. When these assumptions are re-specified, the empirical findings for a sample of 36 countries suggest that in Africa, sectors such as agriculture, construction, mining and utility lead to appreciation of the RER, while the manufacturing, transport and communications, “WRH” sectors, and “other” lead to depreciation of RER among countries. Although the coefficients for manufacturing, and transport and communications are not significant, this is probably due to the levels of development of the sectors within the African continent. Improving the level of development in these sectors therefore through appropriate economic policy framework will certainly impact on the strength of the coefficients of the three sectors, thereby leading to industrial revolution. Chapter 5 concludes the study with a summary of the key findings from Chapters 2, 3, and 4 with highlights of the policy implications of the findings. The highlights include: (1) the need for policy frameworks that discourage continual channelling of resources into sectors other than the industrial and services sectors. (2) A policy thrust in favour of improving domestic sources of revenue through targeting specific subsectors of the industrial and services sectors with appropriate policy instruments. This will provide the needed resources that will reduce the high debt stock per aggregate national income of African countries. (3) A policy thrust that reverses the undermining of development in the manufacturing, and transport and communications sectors. The reversal will stimulate exports and aggregate economic growth through the policy of undervaluation of the RER. Concluding the chapter, the study suggests areas for further research. / MT2017

The RDP is a plan to address the many social and economic problems facing our country — problems such as...violence, lack of housing, lack of jobs, inadequate education and health care, lack of democracy, a failing economy. The RDP recognises that all of these problems are connected. For example, we cannot successfully build the economy while millions do not have homes or jobs. And we cannot provide homes and jobs without rebuilding the economy. We need policies and strategies to address all of the problems together. The RDP aims to do this. The RDP is a programme to mobilise all our people and all our resources to finally get rid of apartheid and build a democratic, non racial and non sexist future. The RDP was drawn up by the ANC-led alliance in consultation with other key mass organisations and assisted by a wide range of nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and research organisations. This inclusive approach to developing and implementing policy — involving as many organisations as possible — is unique in South Africa’s political history. The ANC — because it is a liberation movement and based on the traditions of the Freedom Charter — is the only political organisation which can bring together such a wide range of social movements, community-based organisations and numerous other sectors and formations. This widespread and broad-based support throughout South Africa will allow the ANC within a Government of National Unity successfully to implement the RDP.

No abstract available.

M.A. (Sociology) / Over the past few decades, South African institutions have responded to a prevailing human rights discourse and pressures from the state and labour unions to put a range of key policies in place. Amongst these, family-friendly policies have gained acceptance and prominence. This study explores and analyses the use of family-friendly policies in a major South African bank and establishes reasons why bank staff do and do not make use of such policies, as well as the ways in which the available policies cater for their particular needs. The research probes the experiences of both male and female employees within this South African bank, the challenges that they face and the agency that they display in balancing their work and family lives by making use of the family-friendly policies within the institution. In-depth qualitative interviews and a documentary study of existing policy are the main methods of the study. The sample was comprised of 18 participants with children of 12 years and younger, two childless participants and one union representative. The final analysis reveals that, in general, the participants were reasonably content with the policies that the bank provides and viewed them as adequate. However, they were of the view that more benefits should be forthcoming and that there should be greater consistency in the application of policies. They also raised the inability of staff to discuss personal issues affecting their work efforts with management. Weber suggested that employees in large-scale bureaucracies accept the legal authority of the institution – its rules, functions and hierarchies. The bank as a bureaucracy does indeed frame employees’ social action; however, in present-day South Africa, policy, unlike being what Weber envisaged, is humanising and enabling, rather than constraining, and bank employees are able to exercise their autonomy to make policy work in their favour.

A Research Report submitted in partial fulfilment of the Degree of Master of Commerce (Economic Science) in the School of Economic and Business Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 28 February 2019 / This paper investigates the impact of the South African Child Support Grant (CSG) on the beneficiary’s height-for-age z-score (HAZ). We make use of data from the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS), the wave 3 dataset. Using Propensity Score Matching approach the effect of the CSG is positive but statistically insignificant and relatively small. This popular technique rely on assumptions that often do no hold for observational studies. Furthermore, it is susceptible to misspecification of the propensity score equation which could bias the results. This paper therefore look into a technique that address these limitations and can assess the treatment effect robustly and with more precision. We apply genetic matching algorithm, namely GenMatch. GenMatch is an iterative search algorithm that uses distance metrics to optimize covariate balance in the process of estimating the treatment effect. It automates the search process without the need of manual intervention to achieve the best balance. This algorithm is applied using two balance measures namely, the entropic distance metric and the standardized difference in means. The former compares distributions while the latter compares the first two moments (means and variances) of distributions. The results showcase the significance of utilizing a method that automates the process of optimizing balance and the influence of balance measures on the resulting treatment effect estimate. Specifically, we found that the estimate of the effect of the CSG is larger and more precise than the one reported in the literature. / PH2020

Thesis presented in partial fulfilment for the degree of Master of Management (in the field of Public and Development Management) to the Faculty of Commerce, Law, and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, 2016 / The research aimed to find out whether one of the unintended outcomes of governments’ top-down implementation of the child support grant was increased fertility among recipients in the rural areas, which generally have higher levels of fertility in the country. South Africa does not have a fertility problem, but development is still much needed in the rural areas. The plight of government, having inherited one of the most unequal society is not minimised. According to Mcnicoll (1998), public transfers among age groups are fertility related. Government directs public expenditures towards social services benefiting the poor. Such expenditures and transfers may significantly modify the economics of fertility as seen by prospective parents. Rural households are more vulnerable because of the economic unviability rooted in the apartheid system. Our study has tried to show how the environment in Lenyenye Township and surrounding villages could make it a possibility for women to see the increment of births as a rational solution for the survival of their family. The theory of bounded rationality was used to demonstrate that rationality is more adaptive to situations based on the environmental constraints. / XL2017

This study analyses the Growth Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) strategy with respect to social development, and adult basic education and training (ABET). Since its adoption as official economic policy, replacing the RDP policy in June 1996, the GEAR strategy has been a subject of much debate, and blamed for all social and economic ills, including job losses and high unemployment, poverty, problems in the education, health and welfare system, as well as poor delivery of social services. Motivated by these debates, the author set out to investigate how GEAR provides / does not provide for social development and ABET, both areas of interest to the author. This study investigates this question based only on a review of literature. While the GEAR strategy makes policy proposals in various aspects of the economy, and sets an economic growth target of 6% per annum by the year 2000, and the creation of 400 000 jobs per annum during the same period (all of which were not met), evidence shows no policy provisions in the GEAR strategy with respect to social development, and ABET. In fact, ABET is not mentioned at all in the GEAR strategy. However, the GEAR strategy makes specific mention of the Human Resources Development Strategy, as a vehicle for addressing education and training problems, thereby improving the skills base of the country. The Human Resources Development Strategy and the National Skills Development Strategy sponsored by the DoE and DoL respectively, all seem to be sound policies. There is however growing evidence that South Africa has developed sound policies which it fails to implement because of lack of capacity and financial resources partly due to the government's acceptance of the neoliberal agenda. This appears to be particularly true with respect to social development and ABET targets in the Human Resources Development and the National Skills Development strategies. This study concludes that the GEAR strategy is based on neoliberal assumptions of stimulating foreign investment, export-led economic growth, global trade and global competition, underpinned by the conception that the state must play a minimal role in the economy and is therefore not appropriate for the social development challenges (especially illiteracy) facing South Africa. If progress is to be made in addressing these challenges in South Africa, an alternative to the GEAR strategy must be found . / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002.

South Africa has undergone a remarkable political transformation since the birth of democracy in 1994, yet it remains plagued by extremely high levels of socio-economic inequality, violent crime and social unrest. Although inequality is often regarded as a major driver of many social problems, the evidence base concerning inequality in South Africa is relatively limited, consisting primarily of national level Gini coefficients or General Entropy measures based upon household income, expenditure or consumption data. In this thesis I argue that these broad national level measures say little about people's actual day-to-day lived experiences of inequality and how these individual experiences of inequality may be shaped by the local geographical areas in which people live and go about their daily lives. I construct a series of empirical measures of exposure to socio-economic inequality which reflect the socio-spatial environments in which people live. I argue that these new measures can be used as explanatory factors in the study of other social outcomes, both at an individual level (for example, individuals' attitudes) and at an area level (for example, rates of violent crime). Exposure to inequality is measured both from the perspective of the 'poor' population and the perspective of the 'non-poor' population and the measures are constructed and presented at small area level using the Datazone statistical geography. I analyse the spatial distribution of exposure to inequality and find that exposure to inequality is typically highest in urban neighbourhoods, particularly in the major metropolitan areas. I develop a measure of intensity of exposure in order to highlight areas with both high exposure and high levels of deprivation. I also present one example of how my new measures can be used to explore associations with other outcomes, specifically looking at the relationship between people's lived experience of inequality and their attitudes towards inequality and redress.