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Why are so many South Africans on social grants?

Social development minister, Bathabile Dlamini, announced recently that just under 16 million South Africans receive social grants, which cost our economy approximately R109 million in 2013/2014. Why are so many of our fellow South Africans receiving social grants when we need them to become active members of the economy and contribute to growing our ailing fiscus?

In an article on Fin24, Jac Laubscher: group economist at Sanlam, says that the South African economy is in a "tight fiscal situation" and that the SA economy will need to be tightly managed in the years to come. if the SA economy is in such a tight situation – and in tight economic situations financial cut-backs need to be made – wouldn't it be better to try and reduce the R109 million being spent on social grants and pump it into other sectors of the economy that need it more? The figures are a bit outdated but in 2011, when 15 million people were receiving welfare benefits (not far off the recent figures) 3.8% of the SA GDP was being spent on welfare grants. That's a significant portion of our country's earnings...

My personal view is that instead of handing money to people on a silver platter, government should be implementing ways of getting those people, who are able to perform a job, into the workforce. They will become motivated and set about bolstering the SA economy, which we desperately need. Just my 2 cents' worth.