On 22 August 2008, the Department of Social Development published the ‘Regulations relating to the application for and payment of social assistance and the requirements or conditions in respect of eligibility for social assistance’, in terms of the Social Assistance Act 13 of 2004, replacing the old defective Regulations. Just an ordinary day and another notice for most, but for LRC client Nokwasyiyo Ncamile of Extension 6 in Grahamstown and other similar situated primary caregivers, it was a day of triumph.

Ms Ncamile had been taking care of her grandson, 11-year-old Juan Somke, for the past eight years without any financial support from either of his unemployed parents. She used to work as a domestic worker for a family two days a week but stopped after she was diagnosed with high blood pressure and diabetes three years ago. Therefore, with no income of her own in the past years, she was left staggered when on 27 August 2007 she was informed that she was no longer eligible to receive a child support grant for Juan. Until that day she had, by living in a mud house and having a personal income of less than R1 100 per month, satisfied the means test and received a child care grant since March 2006 which enabled her to pay for Juan’s school fees and other educational expenses, buy him bread and fruit to take to school and give him taxi fare sometimes as it is a very long walk.

In a letter, the Eastern Cape Regional Office of the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) had advised Ms Ncamile that Juan’s child care grant had been terminated. They stated that because her husband received a pension of R1 515 per month, this meant that her personal income exceeded the threshold set out in the means test.  Mr Ncamile helped with buying food for Juan but did not contribute further as he is not Juan’s blood relative and has no legal duty to support him. Entirely dependent on her husband for support, but unable to control how he spends his money, and no longer able to meet Juan’s needs, Ms Ncamile visited the LRC’s office in Grahamstown and was assisted by attorney Sarah Sephton.

On her behalf, the LRC launched an application to the Eastern Cape Division of the High Court on the grounds that the Regulations to the Social Assistance Act 13 of 2004 published on 31 March 1998 were unconstitutional and invalid in that they set a static income threshold that did not take inflation into account. The Regulations thereby included a smaller class of people each year. They also required the income of a spouse of the primary caregiver to be taken into account, even where that spouse has no duty of support towards the child and did not in fact support the child, as was the case with Ms Ncamile. If only just one of the regulations were remedied, Juan and other such vulnerable children would not be deprived of their constitutional rights to social assistance, education and dignity

The new Regulations have changed the income threshold for the child support grant, the care-dependency grant and the adult grant. This means that millions of people previously excluded from social assistance in South Africa will now be in a position to apply for grants. The threshold for the child support grant has been changed from R1 100 to R2 200 per month.

On the new Regulations, the Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya said: ‘This brings relief to those who are stressed with distress and undue hardship. These measures are part of the Government’s war on poverty campaign.  This is indeed a step in the right direction especially in these hard times where the cost of living has increased as a result of high food and petrol prices. The lack of adjustment on the means test to make it in line with inflation had diminished the value of the grants more especially in purchasing the basket of goods that is mostly consumed by the poor.’

To read the Regulations, please click here