Innovations to promote an intergenerational society for South Africa to promote the well-being of the black African elderly

Abstract

Like other South Africans the elderly expected their life circumstances to improve after the first democratic elections of 1994. Drawing on a range of data sources including national household surveys and qualitative case studies, the paper examines the progress made in improving the standard of living and reported satisfaction of older African households, defined as ones which include older persons over sixty years. An outline is given of the prospects of enhancing the well-being of the African elderly by building an intergenerational society (Apt, 1996) in South Africa. An intergenerational society would seek to build on indigenous institutions, such as mutual support through the kinship system, to care for the elderly. Contrary to common knowledge, the multigeneration household is not on the decline: the majority of African elderly still live with children and grandchildren. The paper argues that the new political dispensation has unlocked technological, economic and moral support for multigenerational living. Factors such as respect for the elderly in the family setting, improved services and government transfers to elderly households, the African renaissance and demographic trends bode well for the continuity of the multigeneration household as a living arrangement of choice in future.