South Africa’s ruling African National Congress party is considering requesting government to extend its Covid-19 economic aid to the country’s poorest beyond March this year, party leader Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Monday.
Ramaphosa’s announcement followed a weekend party meeting (lekgotla) in Johannesburg where it was decided that the US$25 monthly grant should be considered for an extension beyond March this year.
The Covid-19 grant, set up in April 2020, was aimed at alleviating the plight of the poor and unemployed South Africans during the pandemic.
“The lekgotla noted that this grant has had a significant positive impact on the lives of the poor, but most particularly, the unemployed,” , Ramaphosa said following deliberations of the party’s National Executive Committee and its alliance partners, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Communist Party.
He added: “The government must examine the feasibility and affordability for providing some form of income support for the poor and unemployed going forward.”
Ramaphosa said the level of unemployment in the country “is beyond a crisis, and there is a need to extend more support to the unemployed and the poor.”
The grant was introduced to give relief to people who lost their jobs following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, and it was meant to be a short-term measure before being stopped in October 2020 after running for six months.
The president decided to reinstate it following widespread riots and looting in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces in July last year.
Since then, COSATU, together with many other civil society organisations and political parties have called on the government to increase the grant substantially – and make it permanent.
NM/jn/APA