GEAR Social Change

1. Introduction

Social change is any modification in the social organization of a society in any of its social institutions or social roles. South Africa has encountered different social changes since 1994.The focus will be on the economic strategy called GEAR, and how it has contributed to social change in South Africa. GEAR was an economic strategy for restructuring and rebuilding the economy. Thabo Mbeki announced in GEAR as an economic strategy in 1995 to undertake a wide-ranging privatisation programme. However, the policy was implemented in 1996. The social change that came as a result of GEAR was privatization and how it affected services that contribute towards economic growth in South Africa. The question that arose when implementing

This implies that there is more money paid to the government through tax resulting in economic growth. The poor cannot afford private health and therefore they make use of the public sector due to constraints on government finance, has seen public health per person spending decrease by 15 percent since 1996, resulting in the deterioration of healthcare for the poor. In addition, there has been a massive movement of key health professionals moving from the under-funded public sector into the private sector, which has increased the public health

Following the implementation of GEAR, communities both who paid for and those who did not pay for water had to pay for water due to the privatization of government institutions that supplied water. Government under GEAR intended to outsource water management companies to deliver affordable and quality services. These changes as a result of the implementation of GEAR has led to many of the poor being forced back to use the rivers as a source of water, which has contributed to the deadly cholera outbreak that took place in provinces such as KwaZulu Natal. Government had announced a "free water" programme, and doing so without additional funds needed for effective