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Abstract
This article was based on a review and analysis of policy documents, reports and other relevant literature. It examines the nature and state of social protection in Lesotho, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. While the strength of tradition and family solidarity guaranteed social protection in the African context this has been rendered ineffective bythe pervasiveness of poverty and modern values of individualism. This makes it imperative to adopt substitute formal extra-familial measures to avert poverty (Kaseke, 1993).Though some formal social protection programmes exist in these countries, their exclusionary nature, lack of comprehensiveness and low level ofbeneßts provided compromise their effectiveness. Furthermore, the fragmentation of social protection programmes in these countries militates against cross-subsidisation from other schemes and supplementary sources of income pointing to the need for their transformation.
Key words
Kaseke, poverty, social protection, vulnerability
Introduction and background
Kaseke, an eminent professor and a social worker by profession was an advocate for social and economic justice for the socially excluded in society (Sheofor & Horejsi, 2006; Zastrow, 2013) through his research and publications on social protection. Social workers have an ethical responsibility to empower and advocate for the provision of sufficient resources to the poor and marginalised (Sheafor & Horejsi, 2006; Reyneke, 2010; KorangOkrah, Boateng, Naami & Ado, 2017).
Social and economic justice is a state of affairs where all members of a society have equal and inalienable basic rights to social protection, opportunities, obligations and social benefits based on the principles of human dignity and the sanctity of human life (Barker, 2003).The pursuit of social and economic justice is consistent with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in that it is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world (United Nations (UN), 1948).
Lesotho, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe which are the focus of this article are developing countries located in Southern Africa. They are part of the 15 member Southern African Development Community (SADC) whose objectives are to inter alia, alleviate poverty and promote the social inclusion of marginalised people through regional integration (Southern African Development Community (SADC), 2012). This is particularly because the socioeconomic landscape of many African countries in general is characterised by inter alia, high levels of inequality, poverty and food insecurity, homelessness, unemployment, prevalence of...