Family life and family policy in South Africa: Responding to past legacies, new opportunities and challenges

G.C.M. Knijn, Leila Patel

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

In this chapter we examine two national policies that were adopted at different times in post-apartheid South Africa. We argue that although the policies are of a different order, they nevertheless take divergent stands on the notion of families in the society and on the direction of social interventions. This reflects the ideological shifts in policy thinking that occurred since the mid-1990s when there was greater openness to progressive policy innovation compared to the more conservative and traditional notions about families in the contemporary period. In the early years, no over-arching family policy existed. An analysis of the Child Support Grant provides insight into how families were conceptualized and how this shaped the design of the policy. We therefore commence our analysis with an examination of the CSG followed by the successive White Paper on Families (1997, 2005 and 2013). The two approaches to families and their relevance in the local context are compared and we conclude that the CSG is a more enabling family policy and is more contextually appropriate than the family policy as presented in the WPFs. The chapter sets out the context of family life and analyses the two policies being reviewed: the CSG and the National Family Policy (NFP). It concludes with implications of the analysis for the future direction of family policy in South Africa.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationHandbook of Family Policy
EditorsTine Rostgaard, Gudny Björk Eydal
Place of PublicationCheltenham
PublisherEdward Elgar Publishing
Pages249-260
Number of pages12
ISBN (Electronic)9781784719340
ISBN (Print)9781784719333
Publication statusPublished - 30 Nov 2018

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