MAM1014F and MAM1022F

Quantitative Literacy for Humanities and Numbers in the Humanities

Assessment 1
2022

Total marks: 40
Time: 1 hour 20 minutes and 10 minutes reading time

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Instructions
1. This question paper consists of four questions and six printed pages. Please make sure that
you have all the pages.
2. Use your calculator, ruler, pens and pencils. You may not share these items during the test.
3. Use blue or black ink for written answers. You may use a pencil for diagrams.
4. Reading time is for interpreting the text, tables and charts, and the relationship between these
representations. Reading time is not for answering the questions that follow the extract.
During reading time you may write on your question paper, for example, underline,
highlight, circle, draw linking arrows etc. You may not write in your answer book or use
your calculator during reading.
5. Hand in both your answer book and your question paper when you leave. Always check with
an invigilator whether you may leave the venue on completion of your test.
6. PLEASE WRITE YOUR LECTURERS NAME ON THE FRONT COVER OF
YOUR ANSWER BOOKLET

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Question 1.

The extract below comes from the following article:

Conradie, I., Hall, K., and Devereux, S. (2020) Transforming social protection to strengthen child
nutrition security. In: May J, Witten C & Lake L (eds) South African Child Gauge 2020. Cape Town:
Children’s Institute, University of Cape Town.

Social grants in South Africa before and during COVID-19

South Africa has a well-established set of social grants that mainly target children, older
persons, and persons with disability. By the end of March 2020, as South Africa went into
lockdown, 18.3 million social grants were paid each month.

Two grants, the Child Support Grant (CSG) and the Older Persons Grant account for
90% of all social grants:
• The CSG targets children under 18 provided their caregivers pass the low means test.
Seventy per cent of all grants are CSGs (nearly 13 million grants), but CSGs comprise
only 37% of the grant budget because the value is very low.
• The Older Persons Grant is targeted to persons aged 60 years and over. These grants
make up 20% of all grants, yet account for nearly half (45%) of all grant expenditure
because of the relatively large amount.

The other 10% of grants are targeted to specific categories of children and adults:
• The Disability Grant is for adults who have physical or mental disabilities or are
chronically ill and unable to work;
• The Care Dependency Grant is for children who have a disability or are chronically ill
and require full-time care;
• The Foster Child Grant is for children who have been placed in foster care by a court.

Table 1: Overview of social grants as of 1 April 2020

Child Foster Care Disability Older
Support Child Dependency Persons
Beneficiaries 12 784 324 154 760 1 042 029 3 676 798

Share of all grants (%) 70 2 1 6 20

Value in 2020 R440 R1 050 R1 860 R1 860 R1 860

(pre-COVID-19)
Share of grants budget 37 2 2 13 45
(%)

Questions:
a) Which number in the table supports the claim in the text that there were “nearly 13 (1)
million grants” that were CSGs?

b) Write in scientific notation the number of beneficiaries of the CSG in April 2020. (1)
Round your answer to the nearest million

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 c) By how many orders of magnitude does the number of beneficiaries of the Care (2)
Dependency Grant differ from the number of CSG beneficiaries?
d) Show how the number 70 highlighted in the table would have been calculated. (2)

e) Calculate the number of beneficiaries of the Foster Child Grant. (2)

f) Explain the meaning of the number 13 highlighted in bold in the table. (2)

g) Using only information given in the table about Older Persons, calculate the total (3)
value of the South African social grants budget for 2020. Give your answer in
billions, rounded to the nearest hundred million.

h) i. Express the value of the CSG as a fraction of the Older Persons Grant? (1)

ii. How many times more people receive the CSG as compared to the Older (1)
Persons Grant in April 2020? Round your answer to the nearest whole
number.

iii. How many more people receive the CSG as compared to the Older Persons (1)
Grant in April 2020?

iv. Using your answers to i and ii above and without doing any further (2)
calculations, explain how it is possible that a similar proportion of the social
grants budget is spent on CSGs and Older Persons Grants even though there
are so many more people receiving the CSG.

i) Is it correct to say that the average value of social grants paid in South Africa prior
to COVID-19 was R1414 per month?
(1)
[19]

Question 2.

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 Figure 1: Percentage change in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
from 2010 to 2019, by world region
30
Percentage change GDP

25 27.4

20

15 18.3

10

0
East Asia & Europe & Latin America & Middle East & North America South Asia Sub-Saharan
Pacific Central Asia Caribbean North Africa Africa

Note. Gross Domestic Product is defined as the total value of goods produced and services provided in a country
during one year.

Table 2. Gross Domestic Product and population size of 7 world regions in 2010 and 2019
GDP (in billions of dollars) Population (in millions)
2010 2019 2010 2019
East Asia & Pacific 17032.3 26981.5 2206.96 2350.7
Europe & Central Asia 21013.6 22934.0 887.9 920.8
Latin America & Caribbean 5353.3 5627.3 589.9 646.4
Middle East & North Africa 2879.2 3406.1 385.9 456.7
North America 16616.0 23182.7 343.4 365.9
South Asia 2060.8 3597.3 1638.8 1835.8
Sub-Saharan Africa 1438.7 1804.5 868.9 1106.9

Questions:

(a) Write the population for North America in 2010 in billions. (1)

(b) From the list below find as many correct expressions for 16 616 billion as possible. (1)
(Note: negative marking will be applied, which means that you will be penalised for
any incorrect options which you select. However, you cannot score less than zero for
the overall question.)
Please write only the letter/s of the correct expressions in your answer book.

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 (i) 166.16 trillion
(ii) 16 616 million
(iii) 1.6616 x 1013
(iv) 1.6616 x 1012
(v) 16 616 000 000 000
(c) Describe, in context, the meaning of the number 27.4 shown in the bar chart. (2)

(d) Explain how the value 18.3 in the chart was calculated. (2)

(e) What was the GDP per person in Latin American & Caribbean in 2019? (2)

(f) In Middle East & North Africa from 2000 to 2009 the percentage change in GDP was (1)
21.3%. Between 2000-2009 and 2010-2019 the percentage change in GDP in Middle
East & North Africa has decreased by ... (choose the correct option/s)

(Note: negative marking will be applied, which means that you will be penalised for
any incorrect options which you select. However, you cannot score less than zero for
the overall question.)

Please write only the letter/s of the correct expressions in your answer book.
(i) 14.1%
(ii) 14.1 percentage points
(iii) 3%
(iv) 3 percentage points
(g) Choose the correct statement/s below: (2)

(Note: negative marking will be applied, which means that you will be penalised for
any incorrect options which you select. However, you cannot score less than zero for
the overall question.)
Please write only the letter/s of the correct expressions in your answer book.
(i) In 2019, the GDP in Europe & Central Asia is almost 4 times as big as the GDP
in Latin America & Caribbean
(ii) In 2010, the population in East Asia & Pacific is almost 4 times as big as in
Latin America & Caribbean
(iii) The largest absolute change in GDP from 2010 to 2019 was in Sub-Saharan
Africa.

(iv) From 2010 to 2019, the GDP in South Asia increased by about 12 percentage
points, representing a $1536.5 billion increase

(v) In South Asia, the change in population from 2010 -2019 was 197 million,
representing a 12% increase

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(h) Explain how it is clear from the data provided that the GDP per person is far greater in (2)
Europe & Central Asia as compared to that of Sub-Saharan Africa in 2010?
[13]

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Question 3.
The extract below was adapted from the following publication: Budlender, D., Proudlock, P. 2012-09.
Funding the Children's Act: assessing the adequacy of the 2012/13 budgets of the provincial
departments of social development - summary. University of Cape Town.

The following table shows the combined budget allocations for implementing the Children’s
Act services in the four coastal provinces of South Africa between 2011/12 and 2013/14. The
amounts shown are in thousands of rands.

Budget Budget
in in Budget in
Percentage change Absolute increase
(R'000s) (R'000s) (R'000s)
in budget (R'000s) in budget
2011/12 2012/13 2013/14
Province
rounded rounded rounded
2011/12 2012/13 to to to nearest 2011/12 2012/13
to to nearest nearest thousand to to
2012/13 2013/14 thousand thousand 2012/13 2013/14
Eastern Cape 6.6 19.6 435781 464554 555472 28773 90918
KwaZulu-Natal 2.9 22.6 (i) 734981 (ii) --- ---
Northern Cape -3.2 19.2 145969 141346 168536 (iii) (iv)
Western Cape 11.5 16.0 462818 516084 598827 53266 82743

Questions:
(a) Write down the growth factor of the budget for the Eastern Cape from 2012/13 to (1)
2013/14?

(b) Show how the number -3.2 in the table was calculated. (2)

(c) Calculate the following values in the table for KwaZulu-Natal:

(i) the budget for 2011/12 rounded to the nearest thousand rands. (2)
(ii) the budget for 2013/14 rounded to the nearest thousand rands. (2)

(d) Calculate the absolute increase in the budget (in thousands) from 2011/12 to (1)
2012/13 for the Northern Cape.
[8]