Interesting further reading
The news organisation that focuses on news affecting poor people, Groundup, has published a series of articles about social grants (some of them taken up by other newspapers): How the system works; How grants are used to pay back loans; Net1 – the company that runs the social grant payment system.
Groundup has also published a useful list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) about social grants, with their answers: Click here
Black Sash human rights organisation has published a pamphlet about grants and rights: Click here
Black Sash has this article about these problems and illegal deductions on its website, that first appeared in The Sunday Times Business Times section: Click here
The fact-checking organisation Africacheck has published accurate information about social grants to correct many wrong things people believe, such as that teenagers have babies just to get social grants. Click here
This contributor to the international online magazine, Brookings, is very positive about the effect of our social grant system: Click here. The article ends: “In fact, social assistance may well be just what many in South Africa need, enabling them to actively pursue a job search, move out of a poverty trap, and take control of and direct their futures, instead of being slaves to the circumstances in which they were born.”