South Africa will introduce a universal basic income grant as part of a range of packages to help the country’s unemployed, says minister of Social Development Lindiwe Zulu.<\/p>\n
Zulu did not provide details of how the grant would be funded or its size, but told a virtual press briefing it would be paid ‘post-October’, Reuters<\/a> <\/strong>reports.<\/p>\n This announcement follows a parliamentary briefing<\/a> <\/strong>last week in which the Department of Social Development noted that the demand for income support will go beyond the six month period covered by the R350 Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant.<\/p>\n The pandemic prompted president Cyril Ramaphosa to announce a temporary top-up of those grants by up to R300, including a R350 unemployment grant, in late March.<\/p>\n However, the country’s unemployment rate is predicted to have soared since the start of the lockdown, with estimates ranging between 400,000 \u2013 1.5 million jobs lost<\/a><\/strong>. There are also concerns about what will happen when the Covid-19 grant is no longer paid out.<\/p>\n The Department of Social Development said last week that to address this, it is working on policy proposal on the feasibility of income support to South Africans between the ages of 18-59 who have no income support.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a result of the introduction of the Special Covid-19 SRD grant that has revived the discussion of the feasibility of a Basic Income Grant (BIG) as was recommended by the Taylor Report in 2002,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n The ANC has previouslyt said that it will also look at the feasibility of introducing a basic income grant as part of a series of outcomes decided upon by its National Executive Committee (NEC).<\/p>\n