The home ownership benefit in South Africa: an obscured pillar of the basket of social welfare support
Date
2019-09
Authors
Vuso, Lerato
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Abstract
Women headed households are considered to be vulnerable in many countries. Their vulnerability is caused many factors and they are more prone to be living in poverty. Poverty is a social ill which affects more women than men due to historical past injustices. The South African government has adopted certain programmes to deal with poverty such as social grants and RDP/BNG housing. These programmes are targeted mainly at households who cannot make ends meet and they provide them with some form of assistance. Both social grants and state funded housing programmes are administered separately but share similar outcomes of reducing poverty.
The research thus explores how the basket of social welfare support articulates with the home ownership benefit (i.e. RDP/BNG housing subsidy programme) to contribute meaningfully to poverty reduction in the lives of women headed households. The case study for this research was a township in Pretoria called Soshanguve and the methodological approach adopted in this study is the qualitative method by using a case study and thematic content analysis. The findings reveal that the effect or level of impact on poverty is not analogous. The impact each strategy has is quite unique and is associated with its own dynamics because of different needs, experiences and interactions with each service.
Further to that, the research presented a mixed synopsis of beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries’ interaction, experiences and challenges with state supported housing and social grants. Additionally, this study reveals the multiple rationalities amid the state practitioners understanding of the conceptual or institutional relationship of state supported housing with other social welfare services.
Description
A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Built and Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of in Masters of Town & Regional Planning
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Citation
Vuso, Lerato Caroline. (2019). The home ownership benefit in South Africa :an obscured pillar of the basket of social welfare support. University of the Witwatersrand, https://hdl.handle.net/10539/29346