Magister Philosophiae - MPhil (Law)
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Item Covid-19 and the right to social security for self-employed and informal workers in South Africa(University of the Western Cape, 2025) Le-Ann CupidoThe year 2020 brought the world to a standstill when the Covid-19 pandemic was declared. Like in many other nations all over the world, one of the most drastic forms of intervention was the implementation of a national lockdown within South Africa. This in essence meant that all nonessential places of work were closed for business. As a result of this lockdown, those in the informal and self-employed economy found themselves unable to work and unable to gain an income. Job and income losses also occurred within the formal economy; however, an important distinction is that those within the informal economy had no protection under the available social security framework. The South African Government put measures in place to assist those impacted by the severity of the Covid-19 pandemic, however it was found that those measures were based on the existing social security framework that inherently disadvantaged those in the informal and self-employed economy. There are various international and regional instruments that are in support of extending social protection to the informal and self-employed economy. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the vulnerabilities of those in the informal and self-employed economy were exacerbated as they found themselves unable to provide for the basic needs of themselves and their families and as a result suffered the most. This study therefore focuses on the need to extend the right to social security towards the informal and self-employed economy.Item Access to electricity within the South African Legal and Constitutional Context: lessons to be learnt from the Netherlands(University of the Western Cape, 2025) Boer, Ketra RaeThe provision of electricity is essential for the promotion of healthcare, employment, food production and educational outcomes. The right to access electricity forms the basis of quality to life and various other rights. The ability of people to receive education, communication between people and the process of preparing food is impacted by access to electricity. 1 South Africa implemented load shedding to maintain the integrity of the electric grid and prevent further grid failure.2 South Africa has, however, coined the term ‘load shedding’ and defined it as ‘planned rolling blackouts based on a rotating schedule in a period where short supply threatens the integrity of the grid.’3 This implementation was the consequence of the failure to build new power stations which would keep up the economic growth and phase out older power plants.4 However the frequency of this load shedding has led to the current electricity crisis in South Africa. The frequency of load shedding has become a highly political and ideological topic due to its impact on various sectors of the economy.5 Load shedding is defined as the deliberate shutdown of electric power in a part of a power-distributing system, generally to prevent failure of the entire system when the demand strains the capacity of the system.6 There have been various factors which has heightened the discussion around the electricity crisis in South Africa. Politics and corruption have been noted as a big issue in the power sector of other African countries and now South Africa has also become one of these countries.