Law, Democracy
& Development
Law, Democracy
& Development
JOURNAL OF THE FACULTY OF LAW | UNIVERSITY OF THE WESTERN CAPE | ISSN: 2077-4907JOURNAL OF THE FACULTY OF LAW, UWC | ISSN: 2077-4907
Author/s: Sarkin, Jeremy and Fernandez, Lovell
Author/s: Olivier, Marius and Van Rensburg, Linda Jansen
The article offers an evaluative overview of the concept of social security and social security structures in South Africa. It argues that an integrated and coherent system of social security regulation and service delivery is key to resolving the present disparities and deficiencies in the social security system. On this basis, the planned legislative and administrative reforms in both the social assistance and social insurance arenas are supported.
Author/s: Olivier, Marius and Van Rensburg, Linda Jansen
Evaluating the protection and enforcement of the right to social security, the authors argue that the only way open to the categories of persons not covered by relevant legislation is on the basis of their constitutional right to access to social security. The major part of the article deals with the question whether the constitutional right to social security is in fact enforceable and, if so, the measures that should be taken to enforce it. The authors conclude that an enforcement mechanism apart from constitutional litigation is required and offer some suggestions as to how such tribunals could operate.
Author/s: Truter, Laurentia
Laurentia Truter investigates the protection afforded to people with disabilities by current social security structures. Distinguishing between the different definitions of disability, the author criticises the focus on medical and/or occupational disability, often to the detriment of a social model of disability. This is followed by an overview of the scope of disability protection in South Africa, notably the protection afforded by the Social Assistance Act. Finally, she considers some of the problematic areas in social security provision for people with disabilities and offers some suggestions on how the system could be reformed in the interests of persons with disabilities.
Author/s: Calitz, Karen et al.
Measuring the unemployment insurance system in South Africa against international standards, the authors consider whether the unemployment legislation should be to provide only for the risk of losing employment, or whether it should also aim to combat unemployment. The article further examines specific aspects of unemployment insurance provision such as the administration and funding of the unemployment insurance system, the calculation of benefits, the contingencies covered and the categories of persons who may be entitled to claim unemployment benefits.
Author/s: Dupper, Ockie; Malherbe, Kitty; Shipman, Barry; and Bolani, Ethel
The article gives an overview of current South African law on family and maternity benefits and highlights a number of shortcomings, notably the exclusion of certain categories of women from maternity benefits. The discussion of family benefits deviates from the usual discourse in that it focuses not only on assistance to families in caring for their children but also on family care for the elderly. The authors argue that caring for older family members places a heavy financial burden on working-age family members and particularly on women. Should the government's current strategy of regarding the family as the core support structure for caring for the elderly continue, it is suggested, appropriate support for families supporting elderly relatives should be forthcoming.
Author/s: Liffman, Rene et al.
The authors deal with the scope of application of social security in South Africa, particularly in relation to excluded and marginalised groups. The article deals in some detail with the categories of persons generally regarded as excluded from the current social security structures, arguing that the level of unemployment in South Africa is a major obstacle in drawing currently excluded groups into the formal social security system.
Author/s: Dekker, Adriette et al.
The article presents an overview of the concept of social security, dealing with the origins of the concept as well as its modern form and stressing the importance of the concept of solidarity for a successful and inclusive social security system. It further advocates a functional definition of social security, moving away from the notion of social security merely as measures of a public nature to an approach inclusive of all instruments able to guarantee social security that are available to society.
Author/s: Rugege, Sam
Sam Rugege's report on recent cases of interest to the African continent focuses on one of the recent Zimbabwean land invasion cases, highlighting the tension between a court system seeking to maintain the rule of law and an executive resistant to it. It also discusses a case relating to the customary law of succession in South Africa.
Author/s: Myburgh, Piet; Smit, Nicola; and Van der Nest, Daleen
The article gives an overview of current occupational injury insurance and highlights some of the issues related to its (limited) scope of application. It also examines the interaction between the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act and the Road Accidents Fund (RAF) Act in the context of commuter injuries. In the light of new developments related to the RAF Act, the authors conclude that the planned move towards defined benefits and a mixed fault-based system would result in the RAF being more closely associated with social protection within the ambit of social legislation.
LDD reader guidelines
Law, Democracy & Development (LDD) is an accredited journal - that is, approved by the Department of Education for the publication of subsidised research output. This means that the articles we publish are subject to stringent quality control. All articles, unless otherwise indicated, are peer-reviewed - that is, anonymously assessed by independent experts. In addition, we also publish reviews, commentaries or other contributions which the editors consider topical or important but which have not been subjected to the formal assessment process - for example, contributions by emerging researchers (such as those in our ALAD section), keynote speeches by leading commentators and the like. These non-refereed items are identified as Forum contributions.
LDD is an open-access journal. This means that copyright in all published material remains vested in the author thereof, but the author grants permission for the material to be made available freely on LDD’s website. The material may be quoted, downloaded and/or copied, subject to the following conditions:
Please therefore make full use of the articles contained in LDD for all academic, research or practical purposes – but kindly remember to cite the source so that others can also find it.
Privacy policy
In common with other websites, log files are stored on this website’s web server saving details such as the visitor’s IP address, browser type, referring page and time of visit. Cookies may be used to remember visitor preferences when interacting with the website. Where registration is required, the visitor’s email and a username will be stored on the server. Email addresses will not be sold, rented or leased to third parties. Emails may be sent to inform you of news of our services or offers by us or our affiliates. If you have subscribed to one of our services, you may unsubscribe by following the instructions included in emails that you receive.
Terms of service
All information contained in official UWC websites, and by extension those of the Faculty of Law, is provided for information purposes only and does not represent a legally binding contract between UWC and any person or entity. Information on official university websites is subject to change without prior notice. While every reasonable effort is made to present current and accurate information, UWC, and by extension the Faculty of Law, makes no guarantees of any kind. The LDD site may contain information that is created and managed by various sources, both internal and external to the University. Some online content exists in the form of forums containing the personal opinions and other expressions of the persons who post the entries. UWC promotes freedom of expression and therefore does not control, monitor or guarantee the information contained on these platforms, and does not endorse any views expressed therein. At no time shall UWC, and by extension the Faculty of Law, be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss resulting from or alleged to result from the use of or reliance on any such content.
Cookies policy
We use cookies and related technologies on our website. Cookies are small data files that are served by our platform and stored on your device. Our site uses cookies dropped by us or third parties for a variety of purposes including to operate and personalise the website. Our website employs the use the various third-party services. Through the use of our website, these services may place anonymous cookies on the visitor's browser and may send their own cookies to the visitor's cookie file. Some of these services may include, but are not limited to, Google, Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, security firewalls, analytics companies, and service providers. These services may also collect and use anonymous identifiers such as IP Address, HTTP Referrer, Unique Device Identifier and other non-personally identifiable information and server logs.