Abstract: | Stokvels in South Africa are social institutions utilizing social capital to serve social and economic needs. These organizations constitute behavioural responses to social and economic insecurity. The present article investigates why the stokvels still constitute such a visible presence in South African society and the ways in which they sustain themselves. It explains the international phenomenon, the different forms of informal voluntary savings organizations in the African community (savings clubs, burial societies, investment and credit groups, high-budget stokvels), incentives for participating in such organizations, and how, why and in which forms these organizations prevail in South Africa. These informal voluntary savings organizations persist because they perform primarily an invaluable social security function, and furthermore also a secondary economic function, functions which are not offered by modern financial intermediaries. Notes, ref., sum. in Afrikaans. [ASC Leiden abstract] |