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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Politics of pension sharing in urban South Africa | | Author(s) | Andreas Sagner, Raymond Z Mtati |
| Journal title | Ageing and Society, vol 19, part 4, July 1999 |
| Pages | pp 393-416 |
| Keywords | Pensions ; Income [older people] ; The Family ; Urban areas ; Social policy ; South Africa. |
| Annotation | Analysing the practice of pension sharing, cultural dimensions of ageing in a residential area, Cape Town's Khayelitsha, are examined. Many older Africans believe that if they do not share pensions with their kin, they have little chance of being helped in times of need. Pension sharing as an instrumental act is rooted in the perceived underdevelopment of the state social security system, as well as in the character of African kinship and the fluidity of today's urban domestic units. Partly triggered by poverty and mass unemployment, African pensioners are under severe normative pressure to share their grants within their families. Taking into account African notions of old age and of personhood, and considering the widespread devaluation of older Africans in social constructions, pension sharing provides older Africans with an (easily available) means by which they can earn (self-)respect. Further, state policies indirectly enhance the normative pressure on pensioners to share their old-age pensions. This practice may be construed as a political model representative of duty. It is suggested that the concept of (intergenerational) reciprocity is inadequate to account for pension sharing or practical provision of old-age care. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-990818201 A |
| Classmark | JJ: JF: SJ: RK: TM2: 7PM |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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