Mitigating poverty to attain SDG 1 (No poverty) in South Africa: Experiences of social relief of distress grant beneficiaries
Khuthadzo Mbedzi & Emmison Muleya
Abstract
South Africa is recognised across the globe for its developmental social welfare programs and progressive social security benefits. However, the COVID-19 pandemic revealed significant shortcomings in the government’s social welfare response to vulnerable groups. To address this, the government increased monthly cash transfers for existing grants and introduced the COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant to alleviate poverty. This study examined the experiences of SRD grant recipients in one South African township to analyse the grant’s impact on poverty alleviation. Using a qualitative approach and case study design, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with participants selected via convenience and snowball sampling. Thematic analysis showed that although the SRD grant is insufficient to fully eliminate poverty, it helps reduce hardship by supporting transport to work and meeting basic needs. The study recommends that policymakers increase the grant amount and consider making the SRD grant a permanent social protection measure. The study contributes to literature on sustainable development goal one through social protection transfers in South Africa and has potential for lessons for other countries. Limitations include a small sample size and focus on a semi-urban setting.
Keywords
poverty alleviation, social development, sustainable development goal one, social relief of distress, social protection
Author information & Contribution
Khuthadzo Mbedzi. Undergraduate Student, Department of Social Work, School of Community and Human Development, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. Email: 1264708@students.wits.ac.za
Emmison Muleya. Corresponding Author. PhD. Lecturer, Department of Social Work, School of Community and Human Development, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. Email: Emmi.Muleya@wits.ac.za
"All authors equally contributed to the conception, design, preparation, data gathering and analysis, and writing of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript."
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Funding
This work was not supported by any funding.
Institutional Review Board Statement
This study was conducted in accordance with the ethical guidelines set by The University of Witwatersrand and given relative clearances by Wits Ethics Committee Non-Medical Protocol number SW24/05/06.
AI Declaration
The authors declare the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in writing this paper. In particular, the authors used ChatGPT AI for language editing. All content was written and proofread by the authors.
Notes
Acknowledgement
The authors wish to thank participants for their willingness to take part in the study.
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Cite this article:
Mbedzi, K. & Muleya, E. (2025). Mitigating poverty to attain SDG 1 (No poverty) in South Africa: Experiences of social relief of distress grant beneficiaries. International Review of Social Sciences Research, 5(4), 109-132. https://doi.org/10.53378/irssr.353279
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