The gendered character of welfare: reconsidering vulnerability and violence in South Africa

ABSTRACT

This paper considers the ANC government’s approach to welfare and, in particular, its de facto rejection of a Universal Basic Income Grant. In the first part of this essay we argue that the current welfare model in SA is underpinned by a naive conception of the South African economy as potentially fast-growing and labour absorbing across all skills types. In the second part of this essay, we consider the gendered character of welfare and of unemployment arguing that under current conditions young men are effectively excluded from social protection. We propose that this situation interrupts the transition to male adulthood and fuels violence against women and children. We conclude by proposing that a Universal Basic Income Grant is necessary under conditions of mass, structural unemployment and widespread 'waithood'.

KEYWORDS:

• South African welfare state
• universal basic income
• unemployment
• toxic masculinities
• gender-based violence

Acknowledgments

We are very grateful for the extensive and detailed comments that we received from the reviewers of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The members of the Coalition were: Age-in-Action, AIDS Consortium, Alliance for Children’s Entitlement to Social Security, Anglican Diocese of Johannesburg, Black Sash, Child Health Policy Institute, Congress of South African Trade Unions, Co-operative for Research and Education, Development Resources Centre, Diakonia Council of Churches, ESSET, Gender Advocacy Programme, Community Law Centre (UWC), Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, South African Council of Churches, South Africa New Economics Foundation (SANE), South African NGO Coalition (SANGOCO), Treatment Action Campaign, and the Young Christian Workers National Secretariat.

2. This economic dynamism was brought to a sharp halt by the global financial crisis of 2008.

3. As an aside, it was not only liberal scholars like Merle Lipton who perceived the consequences of this changing relationship between race and class. Marxists associated with the Federation of South African Trade Unions (FOSATU) did, too. They argued that the nationalist struggle against apartheid was no longer aligned to the struggle of the working class to end exploitation.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jelena Vidojević

Jelena Vidojević is a Senior Research Fellow at the Government and Public Policy Think Thank (GAPP). Before that she was Professor of social policy at the University of Belgrade.

Ivor Chipkin

Ivor Chipkin is the Director of the think-tank on Government and Public Policy (GAPP). His new book with Jelena Vidojevic, The Shattered Vessel, is due out in 2022.