The protection of indigent widows’ right to social assistance in South Africa

Abstract

This study seeks to critically analyse the protection of the indigent widows’ rights to social assistance in South Africa. The right to social assistance is one of the major strands of an internationally and domestically protected right to social security. Social assistance, however, does not extend to indigent widows; this is regardless of the express protection by the apex law of the country. Only widows eligible to benefit from social insurance enjoy social security in South Africa. This leaves a significant portion of widows unprotected since owing to high unemployment rates only a minority can contribute towards social insurance. Supplementary to the vulnerability of women, widows suffer multiple human rights violations exacerbated by various cultural practices. Most of the widowhood rites imposed on widows, directly or indirectly, impact on their social security. Using both doctrinal and socio-legal research methodologies, this thesis answers the question of how South Africa can ensure better protection of widows' right to access to social assistance. The doctrinal research methodology is used to facilitate a thorough analysis of legal ideologies and principles while the socio-legal research approach helps to analyse and understand the law in context. The thesis’ contribution to knowledge is that it argues that South African indigent widows do not enjoy the constitutionally-guaranteed right to access to social assistance. The Constitution expressly states that this right must be extended to everyone unable to support himself or herself, despite this, the indigent widows cohort cannot access this right. This is because the legal framework tasked with the administration of social assistance does not include indigent widows. The social relief of distress which could be the one cushioning indigent widows is presented with challenges that this thesis finds to be a barrier to the enjoyment of the right. Among the findings of this research is that the plight of widows makes them eligible for social assistance, therefore, the South African legal framework should consider granting indigent widows’ social assistance. Some of the recommendations include employing an interpretative approach to the Social Assistance Act which would include indigent widows’ social assistance. Furthermore, the country may consider empowerment programmes, directly aimed at uplifting indigent widows.