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Table 14. South Africa: Socioeconomic indicators, various years
Indicator Year
Result Source
Poverty percentage of the population living on less than US2 a day
2000-2007 42.9
UNDP, 2009. Gini coefficient
2007 57.8
UNDP, 2009. Human Development Index
2007 0.683
UNDP, 2009. Life expectancy at birth
2007 51.5
UNDP, 2009. Infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births
2008 45
World Bank, 2010. Maternal mortality rate per 100,000 live births
2010 300
World Bank, 2010. HIV and AIDS prevalence percentage of the population
16.9 2007
Shisana et al., 2009. Adult literacy rate percentage
1999-2007 88
UNDP, 2009. Children under-weight for age percentage
1998 15
World Bank, 2010.
9.2. Social protection: Programmes and investment
South Africas social protection system is what the Inter-Regional Inequality Facility 2006 calls “a system of targeted social grants” that provides cash transfers to specific
groups such as the disabled, the elderly and children. Access to both social insurance and social assistance is considered a right under Section 271c of South Africas Constitution.
Eligibility to all grants is determined by income-based means-testing and all the programmes are financed out of general taxation. Of the three categories of social
protection programmes in South Africa social insurance, social assistance and universal benefits, social assistance is the most important in terms of coverage and financing.
Since 2006 the management and payment of social assistance grants is in the hands of the South African Social Security Agency SASSA. Currently, SASSA administers the
following social assistance grants:
• Grants for people 60 years of age or more, in the form of a state old-age pension.
• Disability grants, which provide support for adults with disabilities.
• Child support grants, which provide a subsidy for families with children under 14
years of age. •
Foster child grants, in the form of a cash transfer to families with under 18 year olds in foster care.
• Care dependency grants, which provide monetary support for families with children
with disabilities. The SASSA also administers the War Veterans Grant, the Grant-in-aid and the Social
Relief of Distress programmes, but these are more limited in scope than the five grants mentioned above. All the programmes are financed through general taxation, and
eligibility is dependent on an income-based means test.
South Africa also has three social insurance programmes: Unemployment Insurance Fund, the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Fund and the Road Accident
Fund. Contributory pensions also exist for public servants under the Government Employees Pension Fund.
By 2008 a total of 13.1 million South Africans, or 27 per cent of the population, were receiving a grant of some kind. The total number of beneficiaries thus increased by a
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multiple of 5.4 in relation to 1995 from 2.4 million to 13.0 million and by a multiple of 3.5 in relation to 2000 from 3.8 to 13.0 million. As to coverage, whereas 6.2 per cent of
the South Africans received at least one type of benefit in 1995, by 2008 roughly 27 per cent of the population was covered by one social programme or another.
Public expenditure on the social sector including education, housing, health protection, etc. in 2008 accounted for 15.3 per cent of GDP and 50.9 per cent of total public spending
figure 71. During the last decade social spending grew by 2.6 percentage points of GDP a 20.5 per cent growth. Social spending has also gained ground in terms of government
expenditure, though in 2008 the net increment was only 5.9 per cent higher than in 2000, when half the government budget was allocated to the social sector.
Figure 71. South Africa: Social spending, 2000-2008
Source: National Treasury, 2009; International Monetary Fund, 2010b.
Regarding the composition of South Africas social spending, social protection accounts for the highest share of expenditure and consumes roughly half of available social funds.
Certain general trends can be observed regarding the composition of social spending between 2000 and 2008 figure 72:
• Social expenditure on housing tripled in GDP terms and was by far the fastest
growing component. Almost 8 of every 100 rands are spent on covering housing needs.
• Social protection constitutes about 7.6 per cent of GDP and 50.8 per cent of social
expenditure. •
Education gained a net 0.2 percentage points of GDP but its share of overall social spending dropped from 43.8 per cent to 37.7 per cent.
• The share of entertainment and culture in social expenditure was also smaller.
