Cape Town - A review of the R350 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant, which has not kept up with inflation, will be undertaken, Deputy President Paul Mashatile said.
The announcement by Mashatile before MPs in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) yesterday during a debate on accelerating the provision of social services, comes after Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana last month in his 2023 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement said R34 billion would be allocated to extend the grant by another year.
“Nearly 18.6 million South Africans, up from 2 million in 1999, receive social grants, including 8.4 million people receiving the R350 monthly social relief of distress grant introduced for the unemployed during the Covid19 pandemic.
“While there is widespread support for this grant, there are concerns that many deserving people are excluded from the grant, and that the value of the grant has not kept up with inflation.
“As the ANC government, we will tackle this exclusion and ensure that the value of the grant is reviewed,” said Mashatile.
Reacting to Mashatile’s address, Freedom Front Plus MP Fanie du Toit said the ANC government was “under the illusion that it is a great achievement to have millions of South Africans dependent on social grants provided by the state”.
“The government is boasting that the number of social grants has skyrocketed over the past 25 years.
“The reality is that South Africa’s social service system is one of the world’s most expensive for taxpayers to sustain. South Africa has about 18 million full-time beneficiaries, while approximately 10 million persons are receiving a temporary emergency relief grant.”
DA MP Delmaine Christians said the rising cost of living was crippling South Africa.
She said a middle-class South African with a bond of R1.7 million, a car loan of R300 000, and personal loan of R50 000 was now burdened with an additional debt of R5 438 more per month in repayments due to inflation.
Christians said families needed at least R8 900 more in gross income per month to live through the current cost of living crisis.
“State-owned enterprises, instead of being a catalyst of growth, have become burdensome entities requiring continuous bailouts, draining the already scarce resources of our country,” she said.
Yesterday’s debate was the last in the NCOP for the year.