South African Debates on the Basic Income Grant: Wage Labour and the Post-Apartheid Social Policy*

Abstract

The 2002 report of the Taylor Committee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa recommended widespread social policy changes. A key suggestion in the report was the phased introduction of a Basic Income Grant (BIG) on a universal, non-means tested basis. In this way, the report addressed widespread demands by labour and civil society organisations for a form of income to be provided independently from individual employment conditions. The BIG concept recognises that existing social security programmes are related to stable waged employment and therefore exclude increasing numbers of long-term unemployed and contingent workers. This article argues that current shifts in the country's policy discourse question earlier social policies, which saw social inclusion as primarily depending on labour market participation. At the same time, however, the extremely cautious approach to the BIG contained in the Taylor report reflects a government approach that continuously praises work ethics and wage labour discipline while stigmatising welfare ‘dependency’.