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Seniors queue for their monthly social scholarships outside the Jabulani Mall in Soweto. (Photo: Gallo Images / ER Lombard)
A group of more than 80 civil society organizations, including COSATU and SAFTU, have demanded that the government “extend the period of socio-economic assistance to the poor.”
Echoing his call, the NEDLAC community constituency has requested an urgent meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa within the next 48 hours to discuss a looming humanitarian crisis. The group, which has the full support of former public protector Thuli Madonsela, now President of Social Justice at Stellenbosch University, is concerned that the R350 special Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress grant and R500 caregiver grant will arrive. to one end this month. They have issued a joint statement that they have made available to the public for more signatories and support.
You can read here.
the #PayTheGrants campaign, which has also created a Facebook page for support, proposes that both grants be increased to R585 per month, a figure they base on the food poverty line, and extend for at least five months until the end of the 2020/2021 financial year.
They link the extension to a final decision about introducing an annual basic income grant (BIG), something the ANC proposed earlier this year.
Currently 12.7 million people benefit from these grants. the Institute of Economic Justice (IEJ), whose board and staff are made up of leading economists, has produced a fact sheet on ‘The Case for Extending Covid-19 Special Grants‘. It says this would cost the government 37.3 billion rand and save 6.8 million people from hunger, a small price to avoid an impending “humanitarian disaster”.
The statement #PayTheGrants warns that “Without immediate intervention, these benefits will end at the end of October, causing a humanitarian crisis with approximately 6.8 million people sunk below the food poverty line. Therefore, these two subsidies must be urgently extended. “
Speaking today at a virtual press conference organized by the Popular Coalition C-19, an alliance of more than 400 civil society organizations, Madonsela said it was “courageous on the part of the coalition to take this stance at a time when finances are tight. We know that there is no pot of gold, but it is too easy to unload it on the poor who consider themselves expendable. I support this initiative. “
She argued that “The impact of the lockdown will be with us for some time and therefore it is extremely important to retain the grant.”
In particular, Madonsela emphasized that “if we withdraw the grants we will ask the women and girls of South Africa to pay the cost. We will take the burden off the shoulders of the state and put it on women and girls.
“The violence will increase. We know that happens when there is anguish. That is inappropriate. That is unconstitutional. “
Zwelinzima Vavi, speaking on behalf of SAFTU, complained that the second largest labor federation in the country is “excluded from NEDLAC and all other transformation forums.” He said subsidies and even a BIG could only be “a stopgap measure as we address the real reasons behind an economic system that reproduces poverty, inequality and unemployment.
“People’s best chance to escape poverty is employment with a living wage,” Vavi said.
The press conference was joined by a series of community activists who gave faces to the hunger that now plagues all communities.
Prince Tamane, a Gauteng youth activist, said that “any lapse in this payment will put many households in deeper anguish than before.”
Try Shade, from Equality of educationHe told how “many people go to bed without eating. We had to go to court to force the reinstatement of the national school nutrition program. The young people were pushed to the streets to survive ”.
Daddy Mabe, a grant applicant for the Assembly of the Unemployed, told the government that it should understand that “there is nothing free. You look around our areas and you see infrastructure vandalism like PRASA, because people try everything to survive.
“We don’t want to promote crime, so we need help. Make it difficult for people who do the wrong things to justify their actions. People say ‘if I stop people from committing a crime, what do I have to offer them to survive?’ “
Mabe says: “This is a very serious moral question. On the ground we have evidence of the repercussions of our inability as a nation to show solidarity. It is an insult to think that people who want grants are lazy.
“I lost my job in 2001. Until three years ago I was able to run and earn a living. Sometimes it takes me 48 hours to collect R20. But now it’s too difficult to even do that. “
The activists are supported by several university research institutes such as the Cape T University Children’s Instituteown. Ihsaan Bassier, researcher at the NIDS-CRAM survey asked the government to consider “three simple facts”:
- “Covid-19 has devastated employment. These losses will persist after closing. The quick gains that were made when South Africa eased restrictions have now been used up.
- “In this context, grants can – and have – demonstrably reduced poverty. There are one million fewer people in extreme poverty due to the SRD grant and millions more through the caregiver grants.
- “SA has an exceptionally high poverty rate given our income. However, we have the capacity of the system. There is no justification to allow the extreme poverty rate that we have ”.
The call to #PayTheGrants comes on the eve of World Food Day on Friday this week, and in the wake of the NIDS-CRAM “Wave 2” report. There are days before a special session of Parliament to approve an economic recovery plan and also just a week before the medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS) that activists fear will set austerity measures in stone.
Once again, activists are frustrated that the government is not listening to them, at least not to them.
According to Isobel Frye, speaking on behalf of the community constituency at NEDLAC, the National Treasury told them last week that it is “not considering the option of extending grants.” He stated that when they were offered the opportunity to share the investigation, the Treasury told them that “there is no opportunity to participate.”
When asked what would happen if the government refuses #PayTheGrants, a spokesman for the Black sash He said all options were now being considered, including litigation.
The payment of subsidies is considered a “constitutional obligation” linked to the rights to dignity, health, basic education and sufficient food and water.
Madonsela had the last word when she spoke of “the need to review the privileges of people in government, including their personal security which is superfluous. It is excessive.
“Money can be transferred from there and from other places. We don’t want women to pay for government mistakes, again ”. DM / MC
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