Executive Summary
South Africa’s enduring income inequality—the world’s highest with a Gini coefficient above 0.63—continues to lock more than half its citizens into poverty and multidimensional deprivation. Recent estimates indicate that 30 million people survive on less than the 2018 upper‑bound poverty line of R1 417 per month, and pandemic‑driven economic shocks pushed a further 9 % of households into extreme poverty in 2020. Poverty’s toll is not only material: food insecurity still afflicts one in four households, while 27 % of children under five were stunted in 2016. Increased exposure to chronic stress, depression and anxiety among low‑income adults confirms the bidirectional link between poverty and mental illness, perpetuating a vicious cycle.
This proposal refines the original study by integrating multidimensional poverty metrics, the Capability Approach and Ecological Systems Theory to map psychological harms more comprehensively and co‑create policy directions with postgraduate social‑science scholars. Mixed‑methods—systematic scoping review, secondary analysis of national datasets (e.g., NIDS‑CRAM, GHS) and focus‑group deliberation—will generate evidence‑based, context‑sensitive recommendations such as nutrition‑linked cash transfers, integrated primary‑care mental‑health services, and moves toward a universal basic income, now prominently debated in the policy arena.