Building an inclusive social protection system in South Africa
South Africa has an incomplete social protection system without a mandatory pension
savings scheme. Designing a universal insurance pension system would allow to reduce
the important government funded pension grant system and ensure that the old-age population
has decent income. Only 40% of employees are contributing to a form of saving-retirement
scheme, with often a low pension. Moreover, South Africa has a dual, public and private,
health care system. Half of the country’s health-care spending goes to the private
sector, which covers only 16% of the population. Moreover, the health care system
fails to deliver affordable quality services. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted
the unequal distribution of health care services between public and private health
providers. Around 70% of critical care beds available were in the private health care
sector. Finally, the sizeable unconditional cash transfer system though reaching a
large share of the population fail to lift many children in the poorest families above
the poverty line.
Published on September 18, 2020
In series:OECD Economics Department Working Papersview more titles