When South Africa was drawn into the global orbit of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, it was not only thrust into the unknown, but its policy instruments were tested to the limit. Nevertheless, ...its welfare regime was already expansionary before Covid-19, with 60% of the national budget being spent on social wages, including the provision of free services to indigent households and social grants to support millions of South Africans (National Treasury, 2023; Ramaphosa, 2023). During the pandemic, one of the policy instruments which was relied upon by the government, to safeguard the lives and livelihoods of South Africans, was social policy. Interestingly, as the pandemic unfolded, social policy was elevated to a more innovative space to tackle the health, socio-economic and other ramifications of Covid-19. This reflective paper ponders on some of the social policy innovations which emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic. Thereafter, it addresses this in comparison to the post Covid-19 era and revisits some of the supposedly temporal measures which were pursued in the said period. By doing so, it re-examines them in the light of the country’s efforts to rebuild itself after the pandemic and considers if they could be deemed as fitting a more structural, long-term welfare state type of reform. The paper then tries to determine whether some of the policy positions carried over from the pandemic can be considered as new policy imperatives. Specifically, the paper addresses the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) ‘Covid’ grant and the Basic Income Grant (BIG).
This book is written by Southern African social welfare, social work, social development, social security and social policy academics, practitioners and advocates who have varying degrees of ...experience.
In late 2019, there was an outbreak of a new and extremely deadly virus in the city of Wuhan in China. This virus was identified as the Coronavirus (COVID-19). Immediately after this, many Chinese ...citizens were hospitalised or lost their lives due to COVID-19. In early 2020, the virus rapidly spread to other parts of the world and infected countless people with many losing their lives in the process. Due to this dangerous and unprecedented situation, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declar...
This paper analyses the role of copper mining in Zambia and examines the country’s over-reliance on this mineral, which is still its main export. Despite this industry being a colonial construct, it ...remains mostly unaltered in contemporary times, with foreign actors largely benefitting from it at the expense of Zambians, especially the working class and the vulnerable. Due to path dependence, Zambia’s development prospects continue to be locked into an ‘enclave economy’ type of development. The article argues for an alternative development pathway that breaks away from the one that was initially carved out by the colonialists and calls for pre-eminent roles to be played by local actors in the copper mining sector.
The Routledge Handbook of Postcolonial Social Work reflects on and dissects the challenging issues confronting social work practice and education globally in the post-colonial era. By analysing how ...countries in the so-called developing and developed world have navigated some of the inherited systems from the colonial era, it shows how they have used them to provide relevant social work methods which are also responsive to the needs of a postcolonial setting.
This is an analytical and reflexive handbook that brings together different scholars from various parts of the world - both North and South - so as to distill ideas from scholars relating to ways that can advance social work of the South and critique social work of the North in so far as it is used as a template for social work approaches in postcolonial settings. It determines whether and how approaches, knowledge-bases, and methods of social work have been indigenised and localised in the Global South in the postcolonial era.
This handbook provides the reader with multiple new theoretical approaches and empirical experiences and creates a space of action for the most marginalised communities worldwide. It will be of interest to researchers and practitioners, as well as those in social work education.
This paper revisits Esping-Andersen’s welfare regimes typology and applies it to the South African context. To argue its case, it refers to and uses the construct of colonialism of a special type. ...The paper notes that unlike other African coun- tries, Esping-Andersen’s framework resonates with South Africa’s social policy and welfare regime because of its unique history that partly stems from coloni- alism of a special type. It argues that social policy in present-day South Africa continues to reproduce colonial and apartheid socio-economic outcomes due to path dependency. The paper asserts that path dependency has largely been shaped by colonialism of a special type. The discussion then concludes that South Africa straddles the liberal and social democratic welfare state regimes and classifies it as a hybrid welfare regime.
The desire exists within Governments to provide for those who are on the fringes of society. Therefore, indigenous approaches seem relevant in the redistribution of resources among citizens. This ...book is therefore not only essential, but also timely. Indigenous Social Security Systems in Southern and West Africa (ISSS) contributes to human service literature for Africa, Southern Africa and West Africa in particular. The richness of the book lies within the variety of contributions that encourage its origin. The book’s value is extensive and captures many essential and current topics that have an appeal to academicians, policy‑makers, analysts and practitioners in the field of social welfare and social security. Ultimately, the book serves as a pragmatic and expedient tool for human service practitioners and any enthusiast of social security systems.
Enduring colonial legacies continue to shape contemporary politics and policies in Africa. As former and new actors seek to expand economic and political influence in the continent, new forms of ...domination arise to accommodate neo- and post-colonial agendas. Development, an all-encompassing word that foresees linear pathways towards socially and politically engineered goals, has been used as normative justification for such endeavours (see Escobar, 2011; Ferguson, 1994). The underlying messag...
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