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Perceptions of unemployment and the COVID-19 social relief of distress grant in rural South Africa

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  • Giorgia Nicolò

Abstract

This paper investigates young adults’ lived experience of precarity and unemployment in rural Eastern Cape by capturing their perceptions of the Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress grant (SRDg) to achieve a better life.Findings are based on field work conducted in January–May 2024, including participant observation, sixty in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions conducted in villages of the Eastern Cape province. Some scholars argue that radical direct forms of redistribution have the potential to decentre employment. Conversely, this paper voices a choral desire for jobs – i.e. for commodification – for financial stability but also recognition, relationships, and as a way out of the dullness of everyday life. Across these experiences, hopes for a better life are placed in finding a proper job, as the Social Relief and Distress (SRDg) grant is helping to get by, but it remains far from being a building block for their future.

Suggested Citation

  • Giorgia Nicolò, 2026. "Perceptions of unemployment and the COVID-19 social relief of distress grant in rural South Africa," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(2), pages 262-274, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:deveza:v:43:y:2026:i:2:p:262-274
    DOI: 10.1080/0376835X.2026.2651755
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