The findings of this paper emanates from a broader research that was conducted to examine
the role of social grants on poor rural households in Ngqushwa Municipality in the Eastern Cape Province
of South Africa.
The stu
dy adopted
a methodological triangulation approach in data collection and
analysis. Five hundred (500) questionnaires were distributed among social grant beneficiaries who were
selected using multi
-
stage sampling. These yielded quantitative results which w
ere then complemented
by qualitative results obtained from 25 in
-
depth interviews and 2 focus group discussions conducted with
16 participants.
One of the objectives of the broader study was to
explore the role of social grants in
tackling the vulnerabilit
y of beneficiaries to hunger
.
The major findings of the study point to the fact that
the greatest discretion of spending is on food. This has improved food
accessibility and
availability among
beneficiaries and has most importantly reduced both child and a
dult hunger in households where social
grants are injected. Social grants have no doubt reduced hunger and suffering
s
among beneficiaries.
However with the economic downturn and escalating food prices, the nutritional value is lower and
beneficiaries remai
n in poverty as they are not food secure.