Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/339263 
Year of Publication: 
2026
Series/Report no.: 
WIDER Working Paper No. 11/26
Publisher: 
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki
Abstract: 
South Africa has a relatively well-developed social protection system for a middle-income country. Despite its roots in the country's racially discriminatory past, the system has been repurposed post-apartheid to address deep poverty and severe inequality. This paper explores key characteristics of the current social protection system, highlighting its large scale and reach. Given high unemployment, the scope of social insurance is relatively limited and the social protection system is largely geared toward s social assistance. Social assistance is well-targeted and has been found to have significant beneficial impacts on poverty and inequality, but also various other socioeconomic outcomes. A key gap in the formal social assistance system is the working-age population: able-bodied working-age adults are covered only by the COVID-19 social relief of distress grant, the introduction of which has reignited calls for the implementation of basic income support despite South Africa's significantly constrained fiscal environment.
Subjects: 
social assistance
social protection
cash transfers
poverty
fiscal policy
South Africa
JEL: 
I38
I32
J18
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
ISBN: 
978-92-9267-687-2
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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