Duke University Press Edition, United States
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predatory welfareAn critical ethnography about how FinTech firms attached themselves to South Africa's cash transfer program to profit from welfare -- and how recipients pushed back to demand greater forms of repair.
“Who owes what to whom? Can the intergenerational debts of racial capitalism be repaid, let alone repaired? What role, if any, might basic income payments play in this process? Far beyond a simple story about the ills of financialization to be redeemed by a romanticized state, Predatory Welfare is a beautifully detailed ethnography about the intertwined histories, presents, and potential futures of racialization and social welfare in South Africa.”
Hannah Appel, Professor of Anthropology, UCLA, author of The Licit Life of Capitalism |
Buy the Book.
“What is so critically important about the cash payments made to poor rural South Africans portrayed in Predatory Welfare? Torkelson, a geographer, shows readers that predatory capitalism in ‘unimportant’ places is a window onto the production of odious debt everywhere. This exemplary research is a must-read not only for South Africanists but also for all those committed to reforming the global financial architecture.”
- Anne-Maria Makhulu, Professor of Anthropology, Duke University, author of Making Freedom
"The sheer audacity of FinTech's march through the wallets of South Africa's poor masses can only be documented properly by those fighting it, especially the economic justice NGO, the Black Sash, and their superb research ally, Erin Torkelson."
- Patrick Bond, Professor of Sociology, University of Johannesburg, author of Politics of Climate Justice
- Anne-Maria Makhulu, Professor of Anthropology, Duke University, author of Making Freedom
"The sheer audacity of FinTech's march through the wallets of South Africa's poor masses can only be documented properly by those fighting it, especially the economic justice NGO, the Black Sash, and their superb research ally, Erin Torkelson."
- Patrick Bond, Professor of Sociology, University of Johannesburg, author of Politics of Climate Justice
In The UNited States
And... In South Africa
about the book.In Predatory Welfare, Erin Torkelson explores how the direct cash transfer program instituted in South Africa revised and reworked post-apartheid racialized and gendered dispossession, despite its promise of ameliorating extreme poverty. Beginning in 2012, she focuses on how poor Black South African women assert their entitlements to social assistance and responsibilities to familial care against the pressures of expropriation built into the grant payment system. Because the grants did not cover monthly bills, recipients were pushed into predatory loans collateralized by welfare payments. Torkelson finds that the state-sponsored but privately-run program was fundamentally undermined by its reliance on digital financial technologies which encoded wider forces of colonial rule, nationalist politics, and global development.
Even when the government assumed control of grant payment in 2018, the neoliberal bent of fiscal policy continued to drive recipients into debt in new ways. Drawing on seven years of ethnographic fieldwork and organization—in grant payment queues, loan offices, grocery stores, Parliament, and the Constitutional Court—Torkelson demonstrates how cash transfers can offer a means to making racial capitalism more acceptable and how recipients can push back to demand reparation. |
Jacana Media Edition, South Africa
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About the AUthor.
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Erin Torkelson's debut book Predatory Welfare: Debt, Race and Cash Transfers will be published by Duke University Press in the United States and Jacana Press in South Africa on May 26, 2026.
Originally from Arizona, Torkelson is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Geography at the University of the Western Cape and holds a doctorate in geography from the University of California, Berkeley. As a scholar and an activist, her work sits at the intersection of political economy, critical development studies, critical race theory, feminist kinship studies, and science & technology studies. She has published academic pieces in World Development, Society and Space, and the Journal of Southern African Studies. Her popular articles have appeared in Counterpunch, Znet, GroundUp, The Daily Maverick, and The Mail and Guardian, and she made a documentary film for The Cutting Edge on SABC1. She works with the Black Sash, Open Secrets, and Institute for Economic Justice on the South African social grant system and has presented her research to the Constitutional Court-appointed Panel of Experts, the National Credit Regulator, the South African Social Security Agency, and the Department of Social Development. |
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Events.
Erin is currently scheduling book events for the later half of the year. If you are a bookstore, university, podcaster, or other institution, please reach out!
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21 MARCH 2026
Putting the Con in Economic Geography Hosts: Desire Fields, Will Payne, Jovan Lewis American Association of Geographers San Fransisco, USA 8 APRIL 2026 African Informal Economies Workshop Hosts: Anne Maria Makhulu and Charlie Piot Duke University Durham, USA 20 MAY 2026 Jacana Media Discussant: Patrick Bond Author in the House Johannesburg, SA 21 May 2026 Library Book Launch Discussants: Trevor Ngwane, Sanele Khakhu, and Milford Bateman University of Johannesburg Johannesburg, SA 23 MAY 2026 Kingsmead Book Fair Panelists: Jonathan Ancer, Phuthuma Nhleko, and Adrian Saville Johannesburg, SA 26 MAY 2026 Education Faculty Seminar Series Host: Ashley Visagie University of Cape Town Cape Town, SA 11 JUNE 2026 Book Launch Discussant: Niren Tolsi Book Lounge Cape Town, SA 18 JUNE 2026 Black Sash Khuluma Discussants: TBD Community House Cape Town, SA |
18 AUGUST 2026
Faces of the City Seminar Convener: Graeme Gotz School of Architecture and Planning University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg, SA 25 AUGUST 2026 Arts Faculty Book Launch Convener: Fiona Moolla University of the Western Cape Cape Town, SA 1 SEPTEMBER 2026 Author Meets Critics Discussants: Jessa Loomis, Karen Lai, Kate MacLean, Chris Harker, Charlotte Lemanski Royal Geography Society Conference London, UK 10 SEPTEMBER 2026 Wealth in Africa: Redistribution Conveners: Deborah James and Maxim Bolt African Studies Association UK Durham, UK 15 SEPTEMBER 2026 Anthropology Seminar Convener: Kharnita Mohamed University of Cape Town Cape Town, SA 22 SEPTEMBER 2026 Contemporary Humanities Seminar Discussants: Lynette Maart and Abby May University of the Western Cape Cape Town, SA 8 OCTOBER 2026 Geography & Environmental Studies and African Center for Cities Discussants: Kolosa Ntombini and Anna Selmeczi University of Cape Town Cape Town, SA 14 OCTOBER 2026 Wiser Seminar University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg, SA |
Media.
Erin is currently scheduling interviews for the book. Please reach out through Jacana Media's press office.
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EXCERPTS AND ARTICLES
11 MAY 2026 EXTRACT: Predatory Welfare: When social grants became a route to crippling debt, News24 19 MAY 2026 EXTRACT: Instead of cash, Lerato clutched a receipt as if her life depended on it, Sunday Times |
RADIO AND TV INTERVIEWS
13 MAY 2026 Interview with Newskoop Community Radio News 19 MAY 2026 The Honest Truth with Benito Vergotine, Smile.fm 23 MAY 2026 The Breakfast Show with Gugs Mhlungu, 702 1 JUNE 2026 Everyday People with Lerato Mashile, Bush Radio 16 JULY 2026 Interview with Lumkile Nkomfe, Polity |
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