Eastern Cape households rely most on grants as main income source

The impoverished provinces of the Eastern Cape, Northern Cape and Limpopo are among regions with the highest percentage of households relying on social grants as the main source of income. 

This was revealed by statistician-general Risenga Maluleke when he released the General Household Survey 2024 in Tshwane on Tuesday. 

The survey, which measures the progress of development in the country, covered six themes: agriculture; basic household services; livelihoods & food security; health & social development; early childhood development & education; and housing. 

Maluleke said the percentage of households that considered social grants as the main source of income increased steadily from 21.3% in 2009 to 28.8% in 2020 before falling back to 23.8% in 2024. 

Grants were particularly important as the main source of income for households in Eastern Cape (38.9%), Northern Cape (34.4%) and Limpopo (33.8%), he said in his presentation. 

Household reliance on grants was lowest in the DA-run Western Cape (14%), where 68.2% of households relied on salaries. 

SA’s official unemployment rate rose to 32.9% in the first quarter of 2025 from 31.9% in the fourth quarter of 2024. The unemployment figure including those that have given up looking for work has risen to 43.1%. 

Maluleke said the percentage of individuals that benefited from social grants increased steadily from 12.8% in 2003 to about 31% between 2017 and 2019 before increasing to 40.1% in 2024, “due to the introduction of the special Covid-19 social relief of distress (SRD) grant”. 

In his budget speech recently, finance minister Enoch Godongwana announced that the SRD grant, currently at R370 a month, will be extended to the end of March 2026.

However, the grant is expected to be discontinued in its current form after that date. 

The government is exploring options to integrate the grant with employment opportunities, he said. 

On housing, the survey found that 84.1% of all households resided in formal dwellings, while 11.7% lived in informal dwellings.

On electrification, the percentage of households that were connected to the electricity supply from the mains increased from 76.7% in 2002 to 90.2% in 2024, said Maluleke, adding that 76.8% of households have access to improved water sources in their yards. 

While 66.7% of households had access to flush toilets, the Eastern Cape had the highest number of provinces with pit latrines (42%), followed by Limpopo 31.5%, KwaZulu-Natal 27% and Mpumalanga 21.3%. 

On food security, 22.2% of households nationally considered their access to food as inadequate or severely inadequate.

Food access problems were the most common in Northern Cape (34.3%), Eastern Cape (31.3%), Mpumalanga (30.4%) and KwaZulu-Natal (23.9%) 

mkentanel@businesslive.co.za