Social Development In South Africa

Introduction

In South Africa developmental discourse gained dominance, often presented from a neoliberal perspective of entrepreneurship and free market participation. Social development 's social justice aims include promoting social and economic development, facilitating participation of the socially excluded; improving the quality of life of people; building human capabilities; promoting social integration; and promoting human rights (Midgley, 2001; Patel, 2005; Patel & Midgley, 2004, cited by Patel, Hochfeld, Graham & Selipsky, 2008). In itself, social development pursues important social justice ideals; however, when transposed onto a neoliberal capitalist agenda, it becomes co-opted for the maintenance of the corporatist and capitalist

Although it was expected that it would take a considerable time to eradicate the legacy of the past, but it is a matter of great concern that the levels of poverty and inequality are on the increase in South Africa.

South Africa adopted the White Paper on Social Welfare (1997) in line with its developmental agenda with a view of adopting a developmental approach to social welfare and the intention to address issues of poverty and inequity, promoting social development by integrating social interventions with economic development. Furthermore, the White Paper for Social Welfare when looking at the issues of poverty in South Africa gives an indication that South Africa has experienced declining economic growth rates over the last. two decades, the average annual growth rate of the Gross Domestic Product falling below the annual population growth rate. The situation has resulted in decreased per capita income and increase in poverty and pressure on the welfare system to meet basic human needs. The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) study revealed that the poverty gap in South Africa has grown from R56 billion in 1996 to R81 billion in 2001, indicating that poor households were affected more during the said period and a large, poor population being the KwaZulu–Natal Province with the biggest poverty gap

Some of the factors which have entrenched themselves in the lives of the rural communities and which will need more than a restructured education and financial assistance are: unavailability of employment opportunities, the efforts made to capacitate individuals and or communities, economic and political position of rural communities to develop and improve themselves. One should consider that the rural people were much neglected because of the former apartheid system and practices in the country. A number of cases, rural people do not have sufficient means to satisfy the basic