Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree Masters of Arts in Community Work in the Department of Social Work at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2009. / This study seeks to investigate the challenges facing the recipients of child
support grant with special reference to uMhlathuze District Municipality. The
government in its efforts to alleviate poverty, to the previously disadvantaged and
vulnerable segments of our communities introduced several poverty alleviation
strategies like the Child Support Grant which replaced the Maintanance grant.
The Child Support Grant has proven to be successful as it was able, according to
the then Minister of Social Development, Mr Zola Skweyiya, to put about 8
million orphans and poor children in the safety net in 2008. However as
successful as it may be the Child Support Grant as a strategy is fraught with
administrative problems and fraudulent activities committed by the recipients of
the grant themselves.
The writer's findings upon conducting empirical research discovered that,
recipients forge more children's birth certificates and even boast about having
more babies because they command considerable cash from the grant and
unemployed parents become excited when their children drop-out of school as a
result of the grant benefits. Their reason was that they find it hard to cope with
the cost of living as a result of the unforeseen challenges that escalate with each
baby.
The main aim of this study was to outline these challenges and make
recommendations towards their solutions. The study also sought to answer the
question of whether there were any exit programmes designed to assist the
beneficiaries to support their children and cater for their needs as they grow until
they reach tertiary education.
The study was exploratory and purposive in nature. Both qualitative and
quantitative methods of research were used. Interview schedules that were used
were the questionnaires and interviews. The sample was divided into two phases.
Phase one consisted of the Child support grant recipients and Phase two consisted
of social workers and community development workers and two interview
schedules were used respectively.
The findings of this study revealed that the majority of the respondents
experienced hardships in terms of property ownership, employment, education,
training and skills development, emotional and financial support. Lack of basic
amenities such as health care and early child development programmes and social
development programmes designed to supplement the grant are all social
imperatives that they have rights to, according to the Bill of rights enshrined in
the Constitution.
This is a challenge for government and the community at large, if the situation is
not changed the situation will cost government to loose huge amounts which
could be used for other projects.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uzulu/oai:uzspace.unizulu.ac.za:10530/961 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Ndlovu, Beloved Nomandla |
| Contributors | Ntombela, N.H. |
| Publisher | University of Zululand |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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