By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Public Protector, Advocate Kholeka Gcaleka says South Africa could not be proud that millions of its people depended on the government’s social security system.
Gcaleka was addressing the FW d Klerk Foundation annual conference in Cape Town on Friday.
Over 18 million people receive the old-age, disability, child support and foster care grants. Another eight million receive the R350 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant.
She was concerned that the country could become a welfare state based on the number of people on social grants.
“The living conditions in South Africa are so that the social grants are on the increase. Personally, I do not think that is something to be proud of as a country. It leads to the decline in the economy, because it means we are becoming a social (welfare) state. with most people unemployed,” said Gcaleka.
However she said the country had made progress over the last 30 years. But there were still a number of challenges.
Many people continued to live in poverty.
“Approximately 55.5% of the population is still living in poverty at the national upper poverty line while a total of 13.8m people (25%) are experiencing food poverty. Poverty nonetheless remains a key developmental challenge in social, economic and political terms, not only in our country but it is what most of the developing world is struggling with,” said Gcaleka.
She said she had seen the report from the Statistician-General that shows an improvement in the lives of people, including the provision of basic services.
But there was still a lot of work to be done in some of the areas.
“Looking at the service delivery aspect, I have mentioned that the Statistician-General says there is improvement. However, we continue to issue reports and one of them is on the state of service delivery in the Eastern Cape… it gives us a picture that we cannot be proud of, where human being still drink in dams where animals drink,” said Gcaleka.
South Africa has moved backwards in global good governance rankings regarding the World Bank Governance Index. This affects confidence in South Africa for international investors, and risk rating agencies have previously given the country (government) “junk” status.
Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana previously said that South Africa is fast becoming a welfare state, telling Parliament 46 percent of its citizens are receiving social grants.
Godongwana, announced in the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement in November that the SRD grant would be extended until 2025 while government was reviewing it.