Informal social security : a legal analysis

Abstract

With the dawn of democracy, the South African social security system was in dire need of change. The right of access to social security was for the first time entrenched as a fundamental right in the 1995 Constitution. Since then, many changes have been effected to the present formal social security system, but these were mostly ad hoc and lacked a comprehensive approach. The past history of the country led to the exclusion of the majority of the population from formal social security protection. The excluded and marginalised had to rely on informal social security measures to provide social protection. This resulted in a system of co-existence between formal and informal social security. Although informal social security is increasingly recognised as part of the social security landscape, the role and importance of informal social security have largely been ignored in all reforms to improve the protective scope of the present social security system. The thesis aims to change this. Informal social security has been denied a rightful place in the South African social security landscape. The thesis recommends a model as to how the divide between formal and informal social security can be bridged. This model will, it is hoped, serve as a baseline for stimulating debate and generating new innovative ideas as to how to improve the present social security system in South Africa.