Implementation of welfare support and free basic services at Mapuve village in Limpopo Province

Abstract

The government poverty alleviation programme in the form of social welfare support grants and free basic services have been going on over the past decade. This prompted the research into the study which is aimed at the investigation of the implementation of the government social welfare support and free basic services in the Mapuve village, in Greater Giyani, Limpopo Province. The study was designed as a case study within a qualitative framework. The simple random method, which is a probability type of statistical sampling approach, was used in the selection of respondents. Closed and open-ended questions were used to solicit information from the participants in the study.

The study discovered that the implementation of government social welfare grant and free basic services in disadvantaged communities represented the realisation of their socio-economic rights as enshrined in the South African constitution. Mapuve village is one of the villages with a huge backlog of service delivery in Greater Giyani Municipality. The municipality „s inability to provide every applicant with an RDP house is the major contributing factor to the different views and perceptions that people held towards the allocation of RDP houses. The assessment of the key level of services in the dwelling of respondents painted a deplorable situation in the village. None of the respondents had free basic services; that is, water, sanitation and refuse removal in their dwellings and in the communities. Electricity as one of the free basic services is found in one portion of the village.

The perceptions of community members towards the government social welfare grant and free basic service at Mapuve Village point to frustration, anger and dissatisfaction towards the services of the government although to some extent, the social welfare support has contributed to poverty alleviation. In view of the absence of free basic services in the village the respondents complained that the social grants are inadequate in meeting their needs because they also use the grant buy paraffin/electricity and water which are supported to be free basic services. Therefore they called on the government to increase grants to people in areas where free basic services are inadequate.