Current Institutional Affiliation
Junior Lecturer / Tutor, Social Work, University of the Witwatersrand

Award Information

Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa: Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Fellowship 2014
Institutional Affiliation (at time of award):
Social Work and Social Development, University of the Witwatersrand
Informal social security systems as a viable alternative to formal social security systems. A study of selected stokvels in South Africa’s Gauteng province

The reality facing South Africa is that the formal social security system is not properly providing protection to the majority of South Africans as it only covers categories of workers working in the formal sector with regular income. However, South Africa is said to be one of the top countries with high unemployment rate in the world, which is a major contributor of poverty. This excludes the majority of the people from benefiting from the formal social security systems which are occupationalist in nature. As a result many people earn a living out of the informal economy, and activities within an informal economy play a crucial role in enhancing livelihood mechanisms, especially for low income earners and the unemployed. Therefore due to the exclusion of other people in the formal social security systems, in South Africa, stokvels or informal saving strategies have been in existence since time immemorial. The stokvels have become one of the indigenous mechanisms used to increase savings, improve social and economic well-being, especially of the poor and vulnerable groups in different societies. My research site will be the Gauteng province of South Africa and the findings will be based on empirical data that I will have collected and this will enhance the validity and reliability of the findings.

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