Exploring the Familial and
Household Implications of a Datafied Social Protection Cash-Transfer Programme:the Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress Grant in South Africa
data. Given the novelty of the phenomenon there is a subsequent gap in the literature that explores the
implications of datafication through real-world social protection programmes. Lacking even more so are
studies which explore how datafied social protection programmes affect social structures and everyday
lives. Drawing on the implementation of The Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress Grant, South Africa’s first
online and automated cash- transfer, and first cash-transfer to benefit able-bodied, working aged and
unemployed people, this paper makes two contributions. First, it explores the significance of datafied
social protection cash transfers in the everyday lives of potential beneficiaries and their families. Second,
it evaluates the suitability of Heeks & Shekhar (2019) systematic and comprehensive data justice
framework for datafied social protection cash-transfer programmes from the perspective of
beneficiaries. This paper is based on qualitative longitudinal fieldwork with 41 participants during and
after the Covid-19 pandemic in urban and rural areas of South Africa. Findings show that given the
significance of contextual barriers, families and households living in poverty played an important role in
supporting cash transfer beneficiaries, when overcoming data related barriers, to secure their benefit by
investing limited shared resources. In the context of a datafied social protection cash- transfer
programme in the Global South, families and households are significant mediating factors of structural
determinants that affect the outcome of beneficiary entitlements.