Poverty, unemployment and inequality constitute the three main challenges to the attainment of universal socio-economic development within the Republic of South Africa. The government is the Republic of South Africa is grappling to alleviate and eradicate poverty since the dawn of freedom in April 1994. Further, poverty and inequality is historically racially biased due to the segregation which non-whites suffered during the pre-freedom era. The Eastern Cape Province has been regard as the poorest of all the nine provinces in South Africa. The war on poverty in the province has been intensified through the utilisation of social grants as social safety nets under an inclusive social security system. Despite of this poverty alleviation intervention, the prevalence rates of poverty the province remains alarmingly high.

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / Social welfare services are essential for development of human capital and eradication of poverty in South Africa generally. Social welfare plays a pivotal role in enabling the impoverished and vulnerable communities and households to lead their lives through provision of care, social relief, stability and human resource development. Non-Governmental Organisations form an integral part of the welfare system through their formal and informal welfare and residential and non-residential welfare services. The role of the NGOs becomes imperative precisely because of their inherent empathy and proximity to the communities they serve. Government itself has been engaged in the process of transformation and the same challenges of transformation, governance, and effectiveness still profound the NGO sector. Notwithstanding the contribution of the NGOs in the welfare system, it is crucial to scrutinise the nature of their work and the rate of transformation to flourish in the democratic dispensation. To enhance the process of transformation in the NGO sector, government passed a plethora of policies and legislative requirements, inter alia, White Paper for Social Welfare 1997, Non-Profit Organisations Act of 1997. The intent of this research therefore, was to establish the significance of transformation and inherent issues of governance, effectiveness and efficiency in service delivery and sustainability of the nature of social welfare services rendered by the NGO sector in the Western Cape, particularly the Worcester district. / South Africa

This thesis examines the processes of policymaking in South Africa, as expressed through the shifts in income maintenance policy. The thesis focuses on the processes leading to the establishment of the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), as its case study. SASSA is the institutional framework for the delivery of social grants. Our intention is to test the efficacy of what we have called ‘state learning’ in the South African context. Therefore, the overall aim of the study is to assess the capacity of the ‘state to learn’ in the process of policymaking as expressed through the shifts in social grant administration and the institutional framework of social welfare in South Africa. The subsidiary goals of the research includes mapping changes in the system of social grants administration since 1994 in order to assess the sources of the shifts in its institutional framework; to assess processes and responses within the state that result in policy shifts and the extent to which these can be considered dimensions of state learning; to assess the power of ideas in the policymaking process and to assess the influence of non-state agencies/actors in policy contestation and learning processes. This is essential, because social policy, especially welfare policy research in post-apartheid South Africa, has focused on the economic value of policies and not the political processes in policymaking. For the framework of analysis the study draws on theories of learning, especially at the organizational or institutional level. We start from the perspective that policymaking and implementation cannot be reduced to a neatly ordered schema (Lamb: 1987:6). Further, that policy change and policymaking are “iterative, haphazard, and highly political processes, in which the apparently logical sequences of decision-making, may turn out to be the reverse” (Lamb, 1987:6). This is mainly because state building is a complex affair and a contested terrain; policy learning and making are neither benign nor do they involve the state working in isolation (Sabatier, 1998). To understand processes of policymaking in South Africa, we rely on content analysis of primary and secondary materials or documents and in-depth interviews with key informants involved in the policy process. The documentary sources include records of parliamentary debates, green and white papers on social welfare, ANC party documents, presidential task force reports, newspapers, magazines and court judgments. The study reveals that the establishment of SASSA lends itself to the idea of ‘state learning’. Learning is indicated in South Africa by the capacity and ability of the state to stimulate ideas, debate ideas to establish ideational matrixes as well as paradigms that have informed the development of policy, take ideas and implement them to try and solve mismatches between the intention of the state and the outcomes and the ability of the state to produce policy.

This study seeks to investigate the efficiency and effectiveness of the process for providing government social grants to people with disabilities in the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) Amathole District Municipality in order to determine the need for any improvement measures. Taylor’s scientific management theory and the Total Quality Management (TQM) concept were used to interpret efficiency in the functional activities of the officials working in the Disability Grant Unit in Amathole District. The study also sought to answer the question of whether exit programmes existed that were designed to assist the beneficiaries to support them and cater for their needs related to their disabilities. The study followed a qualitative method. Face-to-face interviews were conducted and the sample of this study consisted of ten participants who are working at Grant Administration. These participants included one General Manager; one District Manager; one SASSA doctor; one Head of Grants Administration in the district and six officials who are at lower levels of the hierarchy at Amathole District Municipality in East London service office. Thematic analysis was used to identify themes from the interviews. The findings of this study revealed that the majority of the respondents experienced challenges such as lack of assessment doctors, turn around-time, corruption, poor consultation, lack of managerial commitment and doctors regarding the assessment of applications. In this regards, the study made a set of recommendations on the measures and strategies that could improve efficiency in the provision of this service.

The South African White Paper for Social Welfare (1997:58) acknowledges the importance to children of living in a secure and nurturing family. Nevertheless, many families are unable to fulfil their parenting roles as a result of the increasing pressures in society. One of these pressures concerns the employment of parents. There is an increasing tendency for people to relocate to bigger cities where there are more job opportunities. This then results in many children being left in the care of grandparents or other relatives while the biological parents pursue job opportunities in other cities. The aim of this study was to enhance an understanding of children’s experiences of these voluntary parental absences and the factors that contribute to their resilience during this process. A qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual design was employed and seven primary school children (10-12 years) from Port Elizabeth participated in semi-structured interviews including drawings. Trustworthiness was ensured and data analysis was conducted by using Tesch’s model (in Creswell, 1998). Four themes were derived from the study: Children’s perception of a family, where the participants defined family according to characteristics of (amongst others) care and love; Children’s experiences of living with a substitute family, where there was a process of detachment from biological parents, attachment to the substitute family and present experiences in the new family; Resilience in children, where the participants revealed their ways of coping; and, lastly, Suggestions from the participants on how other children in the same situation could cope.

The main objective of this study was to evaluate the CHILD SUPPORT GRANT as a poverty alleviation strategy as imposed by government in the King William‟s Town Centre. To achieve the objective of the study, a literature review and empirical research were conducted. During the empirical research, interviews were conducted and CSG beneficiaries taken on board as a sample. The impact of the CSG was evaluated to see if these are in line with what the literature reveals. The descriptive method was used to analyze the data and to find responses to the research questions and objectives. The research showed that the determinants are multiple: behavioral, lack of efficiency, and so on. Secondly, it is time for policy makers and others to work with implementers/beneficiaries to understand the implications and context of the CSG in the lives of the people. The critique of the Child Support Grant had not taken on board the viewpoints of caregivers concerning its socio-economic role. The discourse of the Child Support Grant therefore resulted in an over-representation of perceptions that excluded caregivers who collected and used the same grant. The popular approach by scholars to the Child Support Grant was to conclude, based on statistically measurable impacts of the grant, that it was effective in poverty alleviation, without regard to the viewpoint of caregivers. Others regarded its role as disastrous based on observable trends in society, such as increases in teenage fertility, and attributed the same to the provision of the grant, without regard to it as a poverty alleviation strategy.

Thesis (MDev. (Planning and Management)) -- University of Limpopo, 2016 / The purview of this project is to interrogate the alleged rural-urban dichotomy effects of social grants on poverty alleviation. One major problem that sophisticates rural-urban comparative studies is that there is no universally agreed upon definition of "urban" or "rural". By virtue of their contrasting contexts, rural and urban areas are diametrically divergent in terms of their characteristics. These inherent contrasts are critical to the applicability and effects of concerted interventions due to the diversity of actors, agendas, underlying intentions and so on. On one hand, people in rural areas are characterized by socio-economic homogeneity and thus they enjoy communitarianism. On the other, urbanites generally belong to different castes, creeds, religions and cultures, thus they rarely share same social statuses, norms and values. Socio-economic narratives are thereby intrinsically distributed among rural and urban households as well as societies and so are the effects of intervention strategies such as social grants. Literature documents increased blurring of urban-rural distinctions in developed countries, but a multidimensional characterization of settlement type based on style and density of housing, predominant commercial and agricultural activities, and access to services still vividly demonstrates the rural-urban dichotomy in South Africa. The study, thereby, puts the Polokwane Local Municipality on the spotlight to argue that by virtue of contrasting contexts and divergent characteristics between rural and urban areas, social grants have dichotomous effects as strategy for poverty amelioration. The study engages on a scholarship synthesis of characteristics and contexts of the rural-urban dichotomy, roles and types of social grants and dimensions and dynamics of poverty in rural and urban areas prior to a presentation a resume of theoretical and empirical findings from the cross-sectional survey in the Municipality. Employing snowballing to sample a total of a hundred grant-receiving households, the study qualitatively and quantitatively analyses and interprets data from the two study areas. The key finding emanating from the core of the research problem was that despite arguments about modern rural areas across the globe experiencing factors traditionally associated with the urban environment and the ensuing increased blurring of urban-rural distinctions, a multidimensional characterization of settlement type based on style and density of housing, predominant commercial and agricultural activities, behaviour and access to services in South Africa still vividly demonstrates the rural-urban vi | P a g e dichotomy. In the same line of thought, the study concludes that not only are the effects of social grants dichotomous between rural and urban grantees but the effects empirically show dissimilarities at different levels of analysis, including individual, household, location and cash values of various grants.The conclusion also consolidates recommendations revolving around the augmentation of rural-urban effects of social grants so as to synchronize poverty alleviation.

The release of ex-president Nelson Mandela on 10 February 1990, introduced transformation in South Africa. The road to transformation, in a post apartheid era, placed pressure and demands on the social work profession and the professionals. Change was inevitable (Lesnik 1997:164) while the inequities and the disparities of the past had to be eliminated and replaced with transformed services. This study explores the transformational challenges experienced in contemporary social work practice at The Department of Social Development, Johannesburg, South Africa. A non-probability sample was selected (Babbie and Mouton 2004:166). A combination of the qualitative and the quantitative approaches, with more emphasis on the quantitative approach was utilized. Questionnaires were used for data collection and analysis was done according to the framework as described by Tesch in De Vos et al., (1998:343). The transformational challenges were identified and guidelines are drafted to assist in addressing the identified challenges. / Social Work / M.Diac. (Social Work)

The Indigency Policy / Programme was introduced by the Tshwane Municipality in 2000 to alleviate poverty by assisting the poor with subsidized limited basic municipal services. The goal of this study was to explore the experiences and views of indigent older persons in Atteridgeville of the Indigency Policy / Programme of the Tshwane Municipality. Limited literature was available on the topic and hence the researcher undertook a qualitative study that was exploratory and descriptive in nature to explore this unknown area. The key recommendations were: There is a need for active involvement and availability of municipal social workers; continuous monitoring, education and evaluation by the municipality for the communities. It was recommended that the Municipality conduct a full scale research on indigents` experience and perceptions/ views of their Indigency Policy / Programme in Tshwane. / Social Work / M. A. (Mental Health)

The aim of this study was to determine how nurses manage the nutritional care of children under the age of five years at the primary healthcare level. A quantitative approach with an explorative descriptive design was used. A self-administered questionnaire and was used to collect data. The population was 34 professional nurses working in the child health sections of 16 clinics, all of whom were accessible, but one did not respond. Ten out of the target population were also observed using an observational checklist. Findings show lack of proper implementation of Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses (IMCI) guidelines and incorrect use of the Road-to-Health booklet. Secondly, the nurses at the child healthcare section had a high workload or had little experience in child care. The need for more emphasis on nutrition during IMCI training and the re-orientation of nurses on the optimal use of the Road-to-Health booklet were identified. / Master of Public Health (MPH) / Health Studies