Cape Town - Some organisations are calling on the president to extend and increase the R350 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant to R585 a person.
The organisations are also calling for the unduly harsh and narrow criteria for accessing the grant to be reassessed; for inclusion of caregivers for the SRD grant regardless of whether they are receiving a child support grant on behalf of their children; and for urgent progress towards implementation of what they say is the long-overdue Basic Income Guarantee grant for those aged 18 to 59 year.
Black Sash national director Lynette Maart said they were deeply concerned that the president made no announcement regarding the extension of the Covid-19 SRD grant or other relief measures beyond January 2021.
“The Covid-19 SRD and the caregiver grants have been significant policy interventions cushioning over 13 million people from undue hardship, following a year of massive job losses and deep economic and social distress.
“The Covid-19 pandemic is far from over and until we achieve herd (population) immunity, everyone remains at risk of a more infectious strain of the virus, with possible further lockdown restrictions,” Maart said.
“In addition, food prices are rising with the average household food basket as at January 2021 costing R4 051.20, which exceeds the National Minimum Wage of R3 321.60,” she said.
Compounded by rising food prices, Maart said the humanitarian crisis will worsen unless the government provides adequate social assistance for vulnerable individuals and households.
Shaeera Kaala from C19 People Coalition said the SRD grants had been a small but important policy that had helped millions of families put food on the table.
“Towards the end of last year, we came together as the social justice sector to request the extension of the Covid-19 SRD grant as well as the caregiver grant, and were supported by more than 160 organisations and individuals.
“We were pleased that the government responded to our call in part and extended the Covid-19 SRD grant, but were disappointed that the same was not done for caregivers, who are mostly black women and have borne the worst brunt of this pandemic,” Kaala said.
Neil Coleman from the Institute for Economic Justice said numbers of applicants for the SRD grant had continued to rise, despite the hard lockdowns being lifted, which demonstrated that the need continues to be great.
Cape Argus