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Insecurity in South African Social Security

An Examination of Social Grant Deductions, Cancellations, and Waiting

Bibliographic Data

ID4603263
AuthorsNatasha Thandiwe Vally (University of the Witwatersrand, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume42
Issue5
Pages965-982
Publication date2016-09-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Southern African Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0305-7070 • E-ISSN: 1465-3893
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03057070.2016.1223748
OpenAlexW2529249590
LanguageEN
Citations received17

In 2012, the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) contracted a private company, Cash Paymaster Services (CPS), to design a standardised national social assistance payment and registration system. The national card-based biometric enrolment and payment system was advanced as a way to make social grant payment more secure – for claimants, the state, and the national fiscus. In practice, however, it translated into forms of insecurity, which served to promote and reproduce precarity. This article considers some of these insecurities, with a focus on the three most pervasive: the cancellation of grants, the expansive, unauthorised monetary deductions from claimants’ accounts, and the new kinds of waiting that the system introduced

Economic growth · Economics · Political science · Social security · Sociology · Employment and Welfare Studies · HIV/AIDS Impact and Responses · Law

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Unique citing works17
Citations per year1,89
Citation span2017 - 2025 (9)
Citation velocityrecent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 15
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