This paper conducts an in-depth analysis of the policy developments for social security before and after 1994. This analysis enables an assessment to be made on how far the constitutional obligation to progressively realise the right to social security and social assistance for those who can’t provide for themselves has been realised, and the extent to which this obligation has in fact driven the policy making process.

Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) 2011 review.

The social wage has wide currency in South Africa today in a political-policy sense but the economics and social policy
framework remain illusive, both in definition and consequently measurement. The main focus in South Africa is the role
of the social wage in alleviating poverty for those with the low or no wage income. It is viewed as an aggregation of state
provided or funded inputs which off-set the absence of wages but is also taken to mean state provided free basic services. These are generally taken to be redistributive and progressive in the effect of shifting resource allocations within society: the question remains whether these are sufficiently so. The review concludes that the absence of a coherent policy framework limits meaningful measurement of the social wage. It concludes that policy choices and prioritization is required if the social wage is to become less an aggregate of government social spending and more a distinct policy instrument.

This piece of research forms part of a larger research project undertaken by the Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institute (SPII) to compile a measurement matrix of progressive realization of the socio-economic rights enshrined in the South African Constitution. Towards this outcome, the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI) is appointed to undertake a review of housing policy in South Africa since 1996.

The ICESCR campaign is a civil society campaign to advocate for the ratification of the ICESCR and the OP-CESCR), by the
South African Government.