ABSTRACT
This chapter draws a historical perspective on South Africa's transition to democracy and examines the progress of developmental social welfare. It describes social development as a top-down, statist or macro- policy approach to poverty eradication. The chapter distinguishes from social democratic or welfare state systems where social security and social services represent institutional arrangements to guarantee all people in society a basic income level or standard of living. It provides a critique of social development with specific reference to South Africa. The chapter shows the Reconstruction and Development Programme was largely replaced by redistribution through Black Economic Empowerment and social security, free services and land reform. In 1997, the government voted R300 million for special poverty alleviation projects and R500 million in 1998. The government appeared to have taken a U-turn in welfare moving from people-centred social development to entitlement-based direct social security payments as important instruments of poverty alleviation and income redistribution.
