Jamela Basani Hoveni

This project examines how childcare intersects with the wellbeing of grandmothers, mainly poor elderly women dependent on social grants charged to look after their grandchildren in Mafarana village, South Africa. Like many rural villages in the South African countryside, Mafarana has been ravaged by climate change, leading to droughts, loss in biodiversity, and intensifying the care burden. The paper draws upon ethnographic original field research conducted in Mafarana, South Africa. 15 semi structured interviews were conducted with grandmothers over the age of 60. The data is analysed using Taguette software to identify key themes in the data for analysis.

The paper finds that there are various reasons why grandchildren find themselves under the care of their grandmothers instead of their mothers and fathers. These include, among others, death of parents, inadequate wages to support the children in urban areas, single/divorced mothers’ financial constraints, and more. The paper argues that despite the benefits of child care provided by grandmothers, both in rural areas or in the urban centers as co-residents, this form of care which is dependent on grandmothers’ social grants, subsidises and enables the low-wage regime offered by the state and private employers in South Africa. This reinforces race, gender, and labour market inequalities. In some instances, this research found that due to their advanced age, unemployment, and poverty, this form of care causes significant stress on grandmothers, based on unequal and gendered burdens of care work.