South Africa can no longer afford to delay implementing a Basic Income Grant (BIG) that will monthly place a small sum of money in the pockets of those who are starving but don’t qualify for existing social grants such as child, pensioner and disability grants.
When I delivered this message, as a motion on GOOD’s behalf to parliament in March, we scored a rare full house: Our proposal united all parties across their usual divides.
When the Minister of Social Development Lindiwe Zulu spoke, she thanked GOOD for taking the bull by the horns.
This is exactly what GOOD has in mind when it talks about becoming a constructive opposition force in South African politics, as distinct to destructive opposition parties that see their job as simply criticising everything government does without bothering about potential solutions.
Minister Zulu agreed that the suffering in our country occasioned by extreme poverty and unemployment were such that the debate had moved on from, if we should implement a BIG, to how and when.
Calling for a people-centred social compact involving the private and public people, the said she believed that a BIG was possible.
The short-term R350 poverty alleviation grants introduced as a lifeline for struggling families under Covid lockdown last year, are due to end in April.
It is GOOD’s hope and, we believe, that of all good South Africans, that the BIG grant will be a little more generous than this hastily introduced grant.
We cannot afford not to fund BIG. Extreme poverty is like Covid. It is upon us, whether we like it or not. Just as we could not ignore Covid, although our economy was already on its knees when it arrived, we cannot afford to ignore extreme poverty.
We must reprioritise budgets to prioritise the dignity of people trapped in poverty, joblessness and hopelessness.
It is about compassion, but it is also about humanity, fairness and justice.
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