Social and community development was supported by 74% of companies and received 13% of CSI expenditure in 2022. It has been the second most supported sector since 1998, with the proportion of spend consistent through the years.
Within this sector, corporate funding for infrastructure (such as community halls) has fallen from 44% in 2010 to 28% in 2022. There have been increases in funding for youth, orphans and vulnerable children, the aged and LGBTQ+, partly off-set by decreases in funding towards people living with disabilities and people living with HIV.
As society becomes more inclusive and older, we should expect funding to increase to the aged and LGBTQ+ support programmes. General funding has decreased as focus has shifted to youth employment.
Type of support
- Over one-third (37%) of all spend on social and community development went towards support for welfare organisations/ programmes, down from 48% in 2021.
- Infrastructure, facilities and equipment continued to receive the second-largest share of CSI spend on social and community development (28%).
- The average spend on job-creation programmes increased from 18% in 2021 to 22% in 2022.
Target beneficiaries
- Youth (people aged between 15 and 29) are the main beneficiaries of CSI spend on social and community development, receiving 42% of spend in 2022, up from 32% in 2021 and the highest in recent years. This is consistent with greater focus on South Africa’s youth unemployment crisis. Related to this, the average spend on unemployed persons decreased to 10% in 2022, from 14% in 2021.
- Orphans and vulnerable children received the second-largest share of average spend (14%), up from 11% in 2021.
- The aged and LGBTQ+ received more support in 2022, up from 3% in 2021 to 6% in 2022 and 0% to 2% respectively. This is consistent with population that is ageing, and greater levels of inclusivity.
The changing social and community landscape
| 1997 | – The 1997/98 welfare budget was R18 billion, constituting close to 10% of consolidated government expenditure of R190 million. – There were 2 832 156 social grant recipients in South Africa, which accounted for 7% of the total population. – Cabinet approved the main recommendation of the Lund Committee Report on Child and Family Support for a flat-rate child support benefit, to replace the existing maintenance grant. – The country’s unemployment rate was 22.9% in 1997. – The White Paper for Social Welfare Services, which entailed clear directives for a national developmental welfare strategy, was tabled in Parliament in February 1997. – Introduced in 1996, the Growth, Employment and Redistribution Strategy (GEAR) was a five-year plan aiming to achieve 6% annual economic growth by the turn of the century, generating half a million new jobs annually. |
| 2000 | – According to the World Bank, 38% of the population of South Africa were living below the national poverty line. |
| 2004 | – The Social Assistance Act, 2004 (Act No. 13 of 2004) included a child support grant, a dependency grant and a foster child grant. |
| 2006 | – The Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) was launched in February 2006, replacing GEAR. Government identified six ‘binding constraints on growth’ that needed to be addressed to halve unemployment and poverty between 2004 and 2014. – The Older Persons Act of 2006 established a framework for empowering and protecting older people, and promoting and maintaining their status, rights, wellbeing, safety and security. |
| 2010 | – Provision was made for the phased extension of the child support grant up to a child’s 18th birthday. – The unemployment rate was 24.7% in 2010/11. |
| 2012 | – The National Development Plan: Vision 2030 (NDP) was unveiled. The NDP was designed to reduce inequality and eradicate poverty in South Africa by aiming to reach key goals by 2030. |
| 2013 | – The Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill sought to protect and promote women’s reproductive health, eliminate discrimination and harmful practices, including gender-based violence, and improve access to education and skills development. |
| 2015 | – Together with other world leaders, South Africa adopted the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to end all forms of poverty and inequality, and tackle climate change. |
| 2020 | – There were 18 290 529 social grant recipients in South Africa, which accounted for 31% of the total population. – Following the national lockdown, the government introduced a Special Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant for an initial period of six months. Over 10.5 million people have subsequently received the grant. – More than six out of ten children (62%) were identified as multidimensionally poor, according to a report on Child Poverty in South Africa released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA). – Approximately 55% of the population (30.3 million people) was living in poverty at the national upper poverty line (~R992) while a total of 13.8 million people were experiencing food poverty. |
| 2022 | – In the 2022/23 national budget, R364 billion was allocated to social development, constituting almost 17% of consolidated government expenditure of R2.1 trillion. – The SRD grant is ongoing and nearly 7.5 million people in South Africa receive the R350 monthly grant. According to SASSA about 31% of the South African population depend on social grants, and when including those who rely on SRD, it is nearly half of the population (47%) that relies on social grants. – South Africa’s unemployment rate was 33.9% in Q2 of 2022, down from a record high of 35.3% in Q4 of 2021. The number of unemployed persons was 7.99 million. |
