Social protection responses to COVID-19 in South Africa

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought into sharp relief the high rates of poverty and income disparity in South Africa and the gaps in its social protection system. This chapter provides an overview of South Africa’s social protection system, the new measures adopted to mitigate the effects of the pandemic and the economic restrictions that were instituted. It finds that the new temporary social protection measures that were introduced, such as the Social Relief of Distress grant, addressed an important gap in social provision for the unemployed and informal workers, expanded access to previously excluded groups of people and was effective in reducing poverty despite the benefit’s small value. It proposes a basic income grant to address the gaps in provision and highlights the importance of evidence-based decision making, responsive leadership and the need for reliable household-level data to inform future decision making.