Tag: welfare

Clawing Back draws on a rich ethnography of the human relationships at the centre of the redistribution of wealth. The book shows how people use wages, welfare and debt to build social relations and market futures. They also use these resources to engage with the state and to convert between commodified and non-commodified relationships.

Austerity does not need to mean suffering. Cutting public spending is urgent to address South Africa’s growing debt. Delaying cuts will only worsen debt and interest payments, making future cuts more severe. Reducing spending needn’t harm South Africans, as many wasteful expenses can be removed. In 2023, the Democratic Alliance (DA) estimated that the African National Congress (ANC)-led departments wasted around R40 billion in 2022/23 alone.

As with the bosomy among the fairer sex, big government inevitably stimulates public interest and invites frenetic courtship and unrelenting pursuit. The pursuers are usually rent-seekers, lobbyists and representatives of all sorts of sectional interests.