2020/12/14 by Jeremy Seekings · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Democracy #Democratization #Development economics #Dignity #Economic growth #Economics #Foucault, Power, and Ethics #Government (linguistics) #Human Rights and Development #Law #Political economy #Political science #Politics #Poverty #Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare #Social Welfare #Social change #Sociology #State (computer science) #Unemployment #Welfare state
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-54959-6_8
openalex publication_date 2020/12/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Abstract Democratisation in 1994 meant that, for the first time, the South African state recognised that all South Africans had claims on and responsibilities to society. To address the racialised legacy of apartheid , the new government sought to expand opportunities for black South Africans—and hence solve the social question—through racially inclusive economic growth and development. The government initially viewed the system of social grants that it inherited as insufficiently developmental and worried about the poor becoming “dependent” on public support. When unemployment and poverty persisted, compounded by HIV/AIDS, reformers—including especially the Minister of Social Development from 1999 to 2009, Zola Skweyiya—reframed the social question in terms of dignity and responsibility and expanded the social grant system.