STORY: South Africa's African National Congress would like to cast the government programs that assist Dalene Raiters and her family as a success story.
She doesn't see it that way.
"ANC is not even... I don't even want to speak about it."
With a general election later this month, record unemployment and a struggling economy are hitting the ANC's support.
It, however, is touting South Africa's welfare system - a rarity in the developing world - as a landmark achievement.
Raiters lost her job in a primary school 16 years ago and lives with her adult son, who is also unemployed, and two children.
The family largely survives off $58 per month they get for the two minor dependents.
"I'm on a housing list now for the past 27 years, and I'm still stuck here in my mother's yard. I have no job, I can't even feed my children properly."
In February, President Cyril Ramaphosa lauded state grants and subsidies as an "investment in the future".
But the growing number of people requiring assistance - over 24 million this year - is straining the system says political analyst William Gumede.
"And then we have a very small amount of taxpayers, I mean it is a systemic crisis for a country's economy."
Poverty in South Africa is at 60% according to the World Bank.
Unemployment is above 32% - nearly 10 percent higher than 30 years ago.
The future of the welfare system could depend on which of two radically different parties the ANC partners with if it loses its majority on May 29.
One is the center-right Democratic Alliance that would primarily focus on job creation, the other the Marxist Economic Freedom Fighters, which wants to double existing social benefits across the board, among other measures.
The ANC denies it will need a coalition, but most polls are predicting it will lose its majority for the first time since since Nelson Mandela led it to power in 1994.
One voter whose support they've lost, is Raiters.
"Mandela's dream is not their dream. He had a dream and they came to mess up the dream."
