Law, South African Mothers Living in Poverty and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Sometimes being a mother in tough economic times can be a challenge. Socio-economic demands occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic have been especially cumbersome for mothers already living under conditions of poverty. Since the beginning of 2020 the pandemic has further exacerbated the daily struggles of the poor during periods of economic uncertainty, disease and death. Conscious of this additional socio-economic pressure and to lessen the financial burden carried by mothers living in poverty, the South African state introduced a COVID-19 relief Child Support Grant to assist during this trying period. This article explores the role played by law in poverty discourse where mothers are concerned. It is suggested here that the conceptualisation of poverty in law, at least where mothers are concerned, is limited by law's neglect of the socio-political identity of women as mothers, which is rooted in history. This failure reaffirms that law is implicated in contemporary socio-economic inequalities