Social Protection: A Panacea to Alleviating Poverty in the Republic of South Africa

This paper examined the effectiveness of Social Protection as means of alleviating poverty in the Townships of Tsakane, Kwa-Thema and Duduza of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality of Gauteng Province in South Africa. The study was expected to contribute to the body of knowledge in social protection services as a way of alleviating poverty. Stratified random sampling with a proportional representation method was employed to select 200 respondents. The data collection tool used was simple closed-ended questionnaires. Interviews were conducted face-to-face with respondents. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the data. Both descriptive (percentage, frequency et.c) and inferential statistics (binary logistic regression) were employed to analyze the collected data. The descriptive result reveals that secondary education was the highest (59, 5%) form of education among the respondents while 42 percent of the respondents have no income. Also the results revealed that 61, 5% of the respondents thought that government assistance made a difference in their welfare while 38, 5% thought otherwise. The binary regression analysis result revealed that the significant variables that had an effect on social protection were: the location of the respondents; their gender; their level of education; the type of dwelling of the respondents; and their income outside farming. The study concluded that assess to social protection is a good panacea to poverty alleviation in the study areas. The study therefore recommends that the significant variables that had an effect on social protection be considered when measures of social protection are implemented.