Gender, rights and the disability grant in South Africa

Abstract

South Africa's disability grant is critical for the survival of many disabled people and their families, and is especially important to disabled women, who face further disadvantage because of their family responsibilities, their generally deeper poverty and their greater vulnerability to HIV/AIDS and other illnesses. Valuable engagement between feminism and disability theory offers a useful framework for understanding the needs of disabled women in South Africa's social assistance system. This paper sets out the findings of a study of the disability grant system in two provinces in South Africa. It discusses the administrative problems with the system and the financial and other costs that burden the grant applicants and beneficiaries. It proposes that a comprehensive response to poverty, disability and gender inequality is needed, and makes specific recommendations for an improved system.

Keywords:

• Gender
• disability
• human rights
• social assistance

This research was conducted and the paper written while the author was a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, University of the Witwatersrand. The author acknowledges the important contribution of Muzi Ngwenya, who conducted the fieldwork in this study. Thanks go to Cathi Albertyn and the members of a University of the Witwatersrand writing group of which the author was a part, for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper, and to the two anonymous reviewers for their very useful comments.

Notes

¹Grant amounts in this paper are correct as of 27 January 2009.

²Telephonic interview with Nick De Villiers of the Legal Resources Centre (30 June 2006); interview with Marguerite Schneider of the Human Sciences Research Council (17 August 2006) (interview also conducted by Marlise Richter of the Aids Law Project); interview with Dr Sibongile Kubheka and Pat Mgexelwa of the Reproductive Health Research Unit at the Esselen Street Clinic, Johannesburg (28 August 2006) (interview also conducted by Marlise Richter of the Aids Law Project); interview with William Rowland, past director of the National Council for the Blind and Elizabeth Maphike, National Coordinator of South African Blind Women in Action (22 September 2006); and telephonic interview with Fezekile Gadi, Free State provincial coordinator of Disabled People South Africa (16 October 2006).

³Interview with Dr Sibongile Kubheka and Pat Mgexelwa (28 August 2006) (see previous footnote).

⁴ Batho pele means ‘people first’ (Sotho). ‘It is a government initiative to get public servants to be service orientated, to strive for excellence in service delivery and to commit to continuous service delivery improvement’ (Department of Public Service and Administration, www.dpsa.gov.za/batho-pele/Definition.asp).

⁵Telephonic interview with Fezekile Gadi, Free State provincial coordinator of Disabled People South Africa (16 October 2006).