Newaj, Kamalesh2025-02-132025-02-132025-042024-11*A2025http://hdl.handle.net/2263/100819Dissertation (LLM (Mercantile Law)--University of Pretoria, 2024.Informal social security is a non-governmental form of social security between kin and/or community members and is a prevalent practice in South Africa. The question this dissertation analyses is whether the South African government fails in its constitutional duty to protect and advance informal social security. The dissertation limits itself to analysing cash transfers through social grants, and social insurance in the Unemployment Insurance Act and the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act. This dissertation delineates its definition of informal social security, historically contextualises its practice, and explains the contemporary formal social security framework. This dissertation finds five prominent shortcomings in the formal framework, and that these shortcomings have a profoundly negative, weakening effect on informal social security, as the more people who rely on informal mechanisms, the less it can respond to needs arising from life contingencies, shocks, and risks. The dissertation concludes by analysing three legal reform proposals the state can implement: extending existing social insurance frameworks to those in the informal sector, promoting cooperatives as a formal platform for the informal, and the basic income grant.en© 2023 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.UCTDSustainable Development Goals (SDGs)Informal social securityHistorySocial securitySocial assistanceConstitution of the Republic of South AfricaDutyCooperativesBasic income grantDissertationu19000104https://doi.org/10.25403/UPresearchdata.28400927