Abstract
The socio-economic turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated a long-standing issue of youth unemployment in South Africa, particularly in rural areas where job prospects are limited. It is in this context that the unprecedented COVID-19 SRD grant was introduced as a means of providing temporary financial relief in the form of a cash transfer to unemployed individuals. Though the contribution of the COVID-19 SRD grant in combating poverty is well documented, a large research gap exists in studies that qualitatively assess the utilisation and impact of this initiative as experienced by rural youth, particularly in Steenbokpan Village in Limpopo Province, specifically in respect of assisting in the transition of unemployed rural youth in learning and earning. This study's theoretical framework is based on Social Development theory. This approach views social protection as a process that is designed to coexist harmoniously with economic development, thereby promoting human well-being. This study employed a qualitative paradigm based on a phenomenological approach. Phenomenology is a qualitative research strategy that seeks to understand a phenomenon as experienced by a group of individuals, in this instance, unemployed rural youth. In this study, data collection involved interviewing 11 unemployed youths aged 18 to 35 who were beneficiaries of the COVID-19 SRD grant. The results show that the SRD grant played a crucial role as a lifeline, covering basic subsistence needs, including food, toiletries, bathing amenities, and other essential items, thereby ensuring a minimum level of subsistence. Nonetheless, having an insufficient grant amount of only R370, which provided lifetime benefits, had a detrimental impact on the utilisation of this grant to implement sustainable development. This challenge arose after the grant was sought through mostly online platforms, which are hindered by various technological constraints in a rural setting that mainly rely on unofficial structures for spreading information, as well as a lack of technological expertise. Participants demonstrated a strong need to develop a cash-plus strategy that recommends increasing the value of this grant in collaboration with various skills training programmes. This study concludes that, as critical as the COVID-19 SRD grant is to short-term survival, its current form is limiting transformative practice in the sector. For this form of social relief within South African social architecture to be genuinely developmental, relief efforts need to move toward transformative practice in human capital development among rural youth.