Go to AfricaBib home

Go to AfricaBib home Africana Periodical Literature Go to database home

bibliographic database
Line
Previous page New search

The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here

Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:South African Debates on the Basic Income Grant: Wage Labour and the Post-Apartheid Social Policy
Author:Barchiesi, FrancoISNI
Year:2007
Periodical:Journal of Southern African Studies
Volume:33
Issue:3
Period:September
Pages:561-575
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:social security
social policy
income policy
1990-1999
Economics and Trade
Labor and Employment
Politics and Government
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03057070701475575
Abstract:The 2002 report of the Taylor Committee of Inquiry into a comprehensive social security system for South Africa recommended widespread social policy changes. A key suggestion in the report was the phased introduction of a Basic Income Grant (BIG) on a universal, non-means tested basis. In this way, the report addressed widespread demands by labour and civil society organizations for a form of income to be provided independently from individual employment conditions. The BIG concept recognizes that existing social security programmes are related to stable waged employment and therefore exclude increasing numbers of long-term unemployed and contingent workers. This article argues that current shifts in the country's policy discourse question earlier social policies, which saw social inclusion as primarily depending on labour market participation. At the same time, however, the extremely cautious approach to the BIG contained in the Taylor report reflects a government approach that continuously praises work ethics and wage labour discipline while stigmatizing welfare 'dependency'. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
Views
Cover