Remarks by the Minister of Social Development, Ms Nokuzola Sisisi Tolashe, MP on the occasion of the Social Security Colloquium, Sandton, Gauteng Province
Programme Directors, Dr Maureen Mogotsi and Dr Fidelis Hove,
Deputy Minister Mr Ganief Hendricks
Director-General of the Department of Social Development, Mr Peter Netshipale,
CEO of SASSA, Mr Themba Matlou,
Acting CEO of NDA, Ms Raphaahle Ramokgopa,
Deputy Director-General in The Presidency, Mr Rudi Dicks,
Deputy Director-General for Comprehensive Social Security, Ms Brenda Sibeko,
Lead Economist at the World Bank’s Human Capital Project, Dr Wendy Cullingham,
Chair of Social Security Systems Administration and Management at Wits University, Prof Alex Van Heerden,
Centre for Social Development in Africa: Prof Graham
Digital Service Unit in the Presidency and Genesis Analytics: Fidelis Hove and Kathy Nicolaou-Manias
Gates Foundation: Matshidiso Masire
FinMark Trust: Brendan Pearce
Dr Michael Samson: Economic Policy Research Institute
Distinguished representatives from World Bank, research institutions and academia here present,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good morning and thank you all for honouring our invitation to participate and share your thoughts and collective expertise in this two-day Social Security Policy titled: From Grants to Growth: Integrating Social Protection and Income Generating Opportunities.
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, we are convening here today at a decisive moment in the history. Last year December, South Africa assumed the Presidency of the G20 in December 2024, which will culminate in the G20 Leaders’ Summit here in Gauteng Province in the next twenty-seven days. This is an unprecedented milestone considering that it is the very first time that an African nation leads the influential global economic forum.
South Africa has adopted the theme ‘Solidarity, Equality and Sustainability’ for its G20 Presidency. South Africa’s G20 Presidency takes place at a moment in which the world is facing severe challenges. The climate change crisis is worsening. Across the world, billions of people are affected by underdevelopment, inequality, poverty, hunger and unemployment that is worsened by the rising cost of living.
Years of progress in reducing abject poverty, improving education and health outcomes have declined due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing geopolitical tensions that continue to disrupt the global economy and threaten to reverse human development gains. South Africa’s G20 Presidency provides us with a platform to put all these challenging issues on the agenda of the global economic forum.
With less than five years remaining to achieve the ambitious goals of the National Development Plan (Vision 2030) and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development until 2030, we must recognise our progress and the urgent challenges remaining that demand our collective action. As we convene here this morning and the next two days, the question uppermost in our minds is: how we redesign our social protection systems so that it does not only provide relief at the time of need but also uplifts and create opportunities for sustainable livelihoods.
Since the advent of democracy, government has developed extensive policies focused on redress and redirection of state resources to serve the needs of all South Africans. In 2002, we concluded a comprehensive review of our social protection system. Government agreed to create a package of social protection benefits to tackle poverty in all its manifestations. This meant that our system would need to not only alleviate poverty, but also take on preventive, promotive and developmental approaches to create sustainable and inclusive growth.
For years now, our social assistance programme has stood as a powerful defence against poverty and destitution. More than 25 million South Africans—that is roughly 40 per cent of our population—now depend on social grants for their survival. These are not just numbers: behind each figure is a mother putting food on the table, a youth holding on to hope, a grandparent caring for grandchildren, a community that refused to give up. We acknowledge and celebrate that our country has succeeded in restoring hope where there was hopelessness and in restoring the dignity and breaking the cycle of poverty.
But the moment we find ourselves in now, demands more than social grants. The latest figures from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey is a sobering reminder of the deepening crisis facing our country. These challenges call on governments to create more innovative solutions to achieve their economic and social objectives. It is for this reason that we are beginning to link social assistance programs with economic opportunities. On this note, allow me to outline three propositions that I believe must guide our discussion here and going forward. I will ground these with evidence.
1st Proposition: Grants are a foundation, not the destination
When a household receives a grant, it is often used immediately to meet the basic needs—food, water, electricity, transport, school fees. But evidence is growing that many recipients also use it as a springboard, for micro entrepreneurship, investing in their livelihoods, drawing on their resourcefulness, ingenuity and spirit of resilience to sustain themselves and families, despite the odds stacked against them.
Over the last decade, South Africa's GDP growth averaged is approximately 0.7 per cent per year. This was constrained by structural issues like high unemployment, jobless growth, electricity crises and the COVID-19 pandemic. Low growth and the high unemployment have exacerbated the poverty and inequality levels in South Africa, resulting in more than 18 million grant recipients for the Child Support Grant, Care Dependency Grant, Disability Grant and Old Age Grant.
Not surprising, that between 7 and 8 million beneficiaries who struggle to find work are forced to rely on R370 Social Relief of Distress, which is less than R12,33 a day. At inception, this was meant to be a temporary provision, but we have since extended due to challenges faced by this category of beneficiaries. Ordinarily, these target group, meaning those between 18-59 would be participating in the labour market. Unless we can grow our economy at a much faster pace, we will not be able to meet all our social protection goals.
In this instance social grants are not enough. There is therefore a need to create an environment that promotes economic inclusion, leveraging these grants, so that they are not just lifelines of desperation. We need to think about how we can support our beneficiaries by linking them to a myriad of government initiatives and services that we have, so that we can move them closer to the labour market and on a trajectory that creates sustainable livelihoods or income generating opportunities.
Various active labour market policies have been and continue to be driven by various departments to promote inclusion of all people in economic and social activity. These provide an important avenue for labour absorption and income transfers to poor households. Important questions that we are hoping to obtain answers from this gathering are: can these programmes absorb all social grant beneficiaries of a working age and if “Yes” how do we ensure that they are accessible to social grant beneficiaries of a working age. Finally, what are the roles of various government departments in ensuring that arrive at our destination.
2nd Proposition: The informal economy and micro-entrepreneurship are central to our future
Too often we view grants purely through the lens of “beneficiaries” and “recipients", but many are also micro-entrepreneurs, informal traders, service providers in townships and rural areas. The informal economy in South Africa is estimated at nearly 25 percent of the GDP and employs around 19,5 percent of the workforce, the majority of which is women. The low levels of informality, whether accurately measured or not by Stats SA, highlights a sector that is woefully inadequate relative to our income level.
Put simply: if we can link the vast reach of our grant system with viable livelihoods and other opportunities from across the entire government ecosystem, we can create a dual dividend, that of social protection and economic participation.
That means designing a “cash plus” framework, where the social grant system creates a backbone for those most vulnerable and is complemented by access to custom designed services, which includes access to training, business support, market linkages, digital platforms, mentorship, finance, employment and intermediation services, and even support services. Not conditionality in a punitive sense, but enabling pathways, that progressively create agency that empower our most vulnerable people.
3rd Proposition: Our vision: Productivity, Prosperity, Dignity
For too long, social protection has been framed as poverty relief. We need a new narrative, one that views social protection as human capital investment, relief plus opportunity, support plus agency. I propose three core pillars. The first pillar is one of productivity, where the grant is the anchor, allowing employment and intermediation services to scaffold on top of the grant. This creates a linkage between the grant and productive opportunities, including access to the large number of active labour market programme, livelihood opportunities, creating agency for these individuals over time, creating pathways.
The second pillar is prosperity, where the goal is not just to survive, but to thrive. By connecting grants to livelihood opportunities, we aim to move households from barely getting by to generating income, investing, saving, and growing. This is indeed an ambitious task, but we need to start with a vision of what we want to achieve over the next five to ten years. We need to take a longer-term view to investing in the most vulnerable people in our country, rather than taking a short-term, myopic view of incremental budgeting that doesn’t allow us to plan effectively, build services not promote certainly or security.
Finally, at the heart of this is human dignity, not charity, but empowerment. A system that respects choice, fosters agency, values work, and creates the opportunities and an enabling environment that allows every vulnerable South African to contribute and participate in their own development and our national economy.
A Call to Action
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, the time for incremental tinkering is over. The design of the next generation of our social protection system must be transformative. As we engage over the next two days, I implore you to think about how we can link social protection systems with sustainable livelihood opportunities. This requires that we address three critical steps.
Firstly, proposing the redesign grant delivery systems, by proposing the suite of policy reforms so that a grant recipient can be connected to a livelihood opportunity, embedding livelihood support into the grant architecture. Not as an afterthought, but as a core design, through the “Grant + Service”, which leverages the digital transformation roadmap launched in April 2025.
The second is to consider the data and system reforms. The final one is to address the governance reforms necessary to enable the next phase of South Africa’s social protection policy.
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, as I said earlier, we are at a pivotal moment. Our social grants system is a national asset, and should be viewed as an investment, a demonstration of solidarity, of state responsibility, of human dignity. But if it does not evolve to meet the critical challenges of our times, we risk creating a cycle of dependency. If we harness it, we can build a system that catalyses livelihoods, unleashes entrepreneurial energy, and generates inclusive growth for all.
Over the two days, let us commit to build a social protection system that is forward-looking, a comprehensive social protection system envisaged in the NDP-Vision 2030. This is a system that turns grants into growth; that turns support into opportunities; that turns recipients into contributors. I wish you a productive colloquium and look forward to the fruitful outcome of your deliberations.
Thank you very much for your attention.
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