How social security becomes social insecurity: unsettled households, crisis talk and the value of grants in a KwaZulu-Natal village

Authors Bernard Dubbeld

ISSN: 1996-2088
Affiliations: Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Stellenbosch University
Source: Acta Juridica, 2013, p. 197 – 217

Abstract

There is no respect in these times, because young people say they have rights, so they do whatever they like. The boys of today have no honour, they get girls pregnant and leave them. (Mandla) I think it’s criminal behaviour, you should not take somebody’s child and cohabit with her when you have not paid lobola. Our children now go out with a girl and take her to their homes, and she agrees. In the end she has children and there are fights, and he doesn’t want to pay anymore, because we women are paid with a grant. (Hlengiwe)