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The ISER in conjunction with the Faculty of Humanities will host the fifth Dr AB Xuma Memorial Lecture. The lecture is held in honour of Xuma, a pioneer of an inclusive tradition of social policy in South Africa who drew attention to the social effects of Segregation and Apartheid on the health and welfare of blacks.
Xuma was also president-general of the ANC between 1940 to 1949 a period in which he is considered to have modernized the ANC, adopting a new democratic constitution and allowing women equal status in the organisation.
The context of this year’s lecture is the debate on welfare reform and its role in transforming South African society. Media reports suggest that a "crisis" is looming in South Africa's social welfare. Often cited is the increase in access to social grants from 2.4-million people in 1996 to 15.3-million in 2011m an increase of 538%. This increase in social grant take up is considered by some to be both fiscally unaffordable and to cause "dependency" on the beneficiaries who exercise their constitutional entitlements to social welfare.
The countervailing view to the media and sections of government presents evidence that suggests that the social grants system is by far the most effective mechanism of government in alleviating poverty, reducing destitution by up to 45% according to some estimations. The evidence from academic studies also suggest that that social grants do not cause "dependency" in recipients but that it is used meaningfully by the poor to support their livelihood. A failed labour market and its inability to absorb the unemployed population in meaningful work is suggested as a key concern, rather than the existence of the social grant system.
Against this backdrop Prof Patel offers a presentation based on her experience of "developmental social welfare", a concept she pioneered in its application to South Africa in the White Paper for Social Welfare (1997).
The White Paper aimed at creating an "equitable, people-centred, democratic and appropriate social welfare system" where the poor would become autonomous agents in the context of their entitlement to government welfare support. Prof Patel will consider the ideas, which informed social welfare and the achievements, challenges and future prospects of social welfare nineteen years into South Africa's democracy.
Professor Leila Patel is Professor of Social Development and Director of Centre for Social Development in Africa at the University of Johannesburg.
She was previously head of the Department of Social Work (UJ), director-general of the national Department of Social Welfare and deputy vice-chancellor and vice-principal of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She played a leading role in the development of South Africa's welfare policy after apartheid and led the task team that in 1997 developed the White Paper on Social Welfare, pioneering the concept of developmental social welfare which continues to inform the transformation of welfare in South Africa . Her research interests are social welfare, social work, social policy, gender, social protection and social development. She was the editor of the Social Worker Practitioner-Researcher until October 2009. Publications include a book titled Social Welfare and Social Development in South Africa (Oxford University Press Southern Africa, 2005); chapters in books, journal articles and research reports.
5th Dr AB Xuma Memorial Lecture
Title: Developmental welfare reconsidered: the ideas, achievements, challenges and future prospects of Social Welfare nineteen years into South Africa's democracy.
Date: Thursday, 12 September 2013
Time: 5pm
Venue: Humanities Faculty Room, Rhodes University