The Political Economy of Social Welfare Policy in Africa by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-02-22T00:00:00+00:00

7.4 Background and context

Just like in other parts of Africa, the African people had their own forms of indigenous welfare systems which were underpinned by African value systems of the various ethnic groups of South Africa. Therefore, the development of social welfare policy in South Africa is deeply rooted in the history of colonial conquest and occupation, on the one hand, and apartheid, on the other. It is also embedded in the traditional social fabric of the indigenous African populations of this country. In this sense, the beginnings of social welfare and, later, social welfare policy in South Africa are directly linked to the initial annexation of the Cape peninsula and eventual subjugation of indigenous peoples by a white settler population.

Krotoa, the niece of the Khoi Chief Autshumao, worked as a domestic worker and interpreter in Jan van Riebeeck’s household in the 1650s when the Dutch colonised the Cape

Colonial conquest, industrial development, and the institutionalisation of racism that culminated in the creation of an apartheid state in 1948 are all important milestones that shaped the social welfare system and social welfare policy in the country. Earlier sections of this book discussed the background to colonial occupation and apartheid as well as the development of social welfare in South Africa in detail. In this chapter, it is important to mention that the foregoing issues had a bearing on indigenous families’ existence and continue to influence them in present times. Colonial rule led to the annexation of the land of the indigenous people and displaced their families. The discovery of diamonds and gold in the late nineteenth century and subsequent industrialisation, dismantled the African peasantry, which would become the chief source of cheap unskilled labour (Marais, 2001).

The Green Paper on the Family observes that the sole purpose of Africans in the colonial and apartheid era was that of labourers (i.e. labour inputs) for the capitalist economy. With time, other laws were passed in order to keep Africans in impoverished and economically unviable geographic locations with little or no employment opportunities (Department of Social Development, 2011). Furthermore:

‘Colonial conquest and exploitation weakened the African family on two key fronts. Firstly, enforced labour migration compelled families to live apart. Secondly, the policies, laws and practices were aimed at impoverishing African families, which also had dire long-term consequences for them’

(Department of Social Development, 2011: 25).

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