How cash transfers activate beneficiaries’ decision-making in livelihood activities: A case of Soweto, South Africa

Figures & data

Table 1. Cash transfer amounts and perceived linkage with decision-making in livelihood activities.

Names^a	Gender	Grants^b	Amount^c	Grants Impacts on Livelihood Activities
Gladys	F	OAP^d	R1700 ($121)	‘I use the pension money to support my business (expansion of beer and cigarettes businesses)’, and for payment of stokvel^e memberships (R1000 ($71) & R50 ($4) monthly)
Gregory	M	OAP	R1700 ($121)	‘I use pension money to stock (beer and cigarettes for sale) sometimes’, and for payment of stokvel memberships (R500 ($36) monthly & R200 ($14) weekly)’
Henry	M	CSG^f	R410 ($29)	‘Grant money for my daughter was part of the money I used to start the business (restaurant: meat and pap), as that was what I used to buy the first charcoal’.
Jolly	F	OAP	R1700 ($121)	‘I created my business (supply of burgers and fish) using the grant money;’ and initiated two stokvels groups (R1000 ($71) & R500 ($36) monthly) after becoming a beneficiary.
Kelebogile	F	2CSGs	R820 ($59)	‘The grant money was the starting point of all these businesses (supply of hampers and money-lending) and everything you see in this compound today. I borrowed R2000 ($143) from my sister to start to hamper business but I had to pay her gradually from the grant money. That is why I say that grant money is the money that I used to start everything’. She is also a member of stokvel (R1000 ($71) monthly).
Luthando	M	CSG	R410 ($29)	‘My son’s grant money was part of the first money that I used to re-start this business you see here today. I took R150 ($11) from his money and added the R300 ($21) I got from a money lender that is how this business (of selling beauty products) re-started;’ and ‘those first three days of every month I sell a lot of things because people are getting SASSA money (grants)’. He is also a member of stokvel (R500 ($36) monthly).
Mabuso	M	3CSGs & OAP	R2930 ($208)	‘At times I use my pension money to transport my team to the site, or even to buy little things that I need to do my job (as a builder) especially if the client does not have money at that time. The only money that helps me to keep doing the work and paying my workers at the end of every day is my pension money which I have saved in the bank’.
Mandi	F	OAP	R1700 ($121)	‘Without the pension money, I would not have been able to join a stokvel. It was the same stokvel money when it got to my turn that I used to build the house for rent’.
Mayo	F	2CSGs	R820 ($59)	‘I used my children’s grants to start my businesses (of selling beer and cigarettes, meat, vegetables, and money lending businesses)’. I also became a member of stokvel (R500 ($36) monthly)’.
Nompilo	F	CSG	R410 ($29)	‘The business (producing and selling of ice-cream, chips, and sweets) and gardening that I am doing is my life and source of my happiness, but I remember that I started all of them partly with grant money’.
Nomusa	F	3CSGs	R1230 ($88)	‘The grant money helped me because I saved it with stokvel and once I got it back I used it together with the R1000 ($71) from my ex-husband to start my spaza shop’.
Nondumiso	F	OAP	R1700 ($121)	‘I use pension money to fill the loopholes that have been opened by the money my customers are owing me. I use the money to buy materials for sewing and to stock the things that I sell, my business continues whether my customers are owing to me or not because of pension money’. She also became a member of grocery stokvel.
Nthabile	F	2CSGs	R820 ($59)	‘I started the business when I began to get a social grant. But the social grant is only half of the money, the other half was my savings’. ‘The grant money helps me to make sure that the business is growing on its own without disturbances’.
Patience	F	2CSGs	R820 ($59)	‘I remember that grant money was part of what I used to buy first detergents and softener that I used in my laundry and dry-cleaning business. I even used the money for transport to where I am working. The grant money is good for the start-up of business’.
Sphamandla	M	3CSGs & DG^g	R2930 ($208)	‘I created the business (selling of beauty products, meat, chips, sweets, and purchase of tools for fixing shoes) using the grant money’ … and ‘when business is up and down I use the grant money to fill the holes, I end up using the grant money to stock because I don’t want my business to stop operating’.
Sthandiso	M	2CSGs	R820 ($59)	‘I use the grant money to stock the fruits and vegetables which I sell to people at SASSA pay Points’.
Thando	M	3CSGs	R1230 ($88)	‘The grant money fills the holes that are exposed in the household by the delay (of recycling companies)’. Occasionally he uses the money for transportation to a part-time grass-cutting job at Florida and to town to sell scrap when the waste companies delay.

^a These are not the real names of the participants.

^b Grants received in a household of each participants in a month.

^c The amount of grants received in a household of participants per month. The amounts are as at when the interviews were conducted by July 2017.

^d OAP represents Old Age Pension.

^e Stokvel is an Afrikaans word for an informal money saving club among group of people who rotate contribution within the group on monthly basis.

^f CSG refers to Child Support Grant.

^g DG represents Disability Grant.

Table 2. Initial decision-making.

Participants	Initial decision and choice of livelihood activities
Gladys	‘ … I decided that I am starting with the selling of vegetables’.
Gregory	‘I made the decision of selling beer … on my own because of poverty’.
Henry	‘I decided that I must create something for myself so that I can make my own money and stop depending on my brothers and sisters’.
Jolly	‘I usually think about different things I can do to make money … I just decide to do that thing which came to my mind’.
Kelebogile	‘I took the opportunity and decided to start the business’.
Luthando	‘I decided to go and start selling’.
Mabuso	‘When I wanted to go fully into the building I brought out the idea and we discussed it as a family’.
Mandi	‘I decided to use my money to build a house which I must leave my children with when I pass away’.
Mayo	‘I made the decision on my own because I do not want to depend on people and do nothing’.
Nompilo	‘I decided that to stop working for that company because I spend everything they pay me on transport’.
Nomusa	‘I decide to start a business [spaza shop] on my own’.
Nondumiso	‘I decided … to start a business myself’.
Nthabile	‘When I started getting the grant I then decided to start a business’.
Patience	‘I decided to start laundry on my own, I saw the opportunity and took it’.
Sphamandla	‘We had to create something ourselves … ’
Sthandiso	‘She [wife] agreed with me, that was how the decision was made to start selling’.
Thando	‘I decided to start recycling business, so that I can stop begging people for money’.

Table 3. Participants’ on-going business decisions.

Participants	On-going business decisions
Gladys	‘I only do business that is working, and not the ones that will waste my money. Any business that wastes my money I drop it and move on’.
Gregory	‘I came to decision to sell cigarette also after I started selling beer because there is not much profit in beer’.
Henry	‘I make decisions about how to spend money on my own … how much to use to buy stock, how much to save in the bank’.
Jolly	‘I keep adding more businesses because the more business I have the better chance I will have in making more profit’.
Kelebogile	‘When I noticed the jealousy … I decided not to lend money to any of my neighbours again’.
Luthando	‘Each and every decision now in the house is between me and her’.
Mabuso	‘I make all my decision including how to spend money with my wife’.
Mandi	‘I do not borrow money at all, I must manage the little that I have very well’.
Mayo	‘She [daughter] helps me in making decisions most times’.
Nompilo	‘I decided to simply continue with perfume business’.
Nomusa	‘[O]nce I get my stokvel money I launch a new business in addition to what I was doing before’.
Nondumiso	‘Whenever I see an opportunity to sell something I decide to add that particular thing to the things I am selling already’.
Nthabile	‘I do it [chip and fish business] from 7:30 am to 8:00 pm every day’ [example of an operational decision].
Patience	‘I decide based on the money I have … ’
Sphamandla	‘I always decide everything with my wife, even the amount to borrow … ’
Sthandiso	‘we decided to add second-hand clothes business’.
Thando	‘Both of us [he and his wife] agreed on how to spend the money’.