{"id":506914,"date":"2021-07-19T07:52:21","date_gmt":"2021-07-19T05:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=506914"},"modified":"2021-07-19T07:52:21","modified_gmt":"2021-07-19T05:52:21","slug":"government-considers-basic-income-grant-after-riots-and-looting-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/506914\/government-considers-basic-income-grant-after-riots-and-looting-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Government considers basic income grant after riots and looting in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>President Cyril Ramaphosa says that the government is currently investigating the feasibility of introducing a basic income grant in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at a Mandela Day memorial lecture on Sunday (18 July), the president said that the grant would show people &#8216;that the government cared&#8217;, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2021-07-18-ramaphosa-says-basic-income-grant-will-show-government-cares\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BusinessDay<\/a><\/strong> reported.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis will validate our people and show them that we are giving serious consideration to their lives.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are giving active consideration to the grinding poverty that we continue to see in our country. We need to address the structural inequalities in our economy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has also called for the introduction of a basic income grant as part of a response to the massive socioeconomic fallout from the riots in KZN and Gauteng.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In responding to the crisis, the South African government has no choice but to abandon its austerity framework and choose an expansionary fiscal policy framework,&#8221; Cosatu said. &#8220;This moment calls for a change of mindset and an acknowledgement of the fact that the current unemployment and poverty levels are not sustainable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Under urgent consideration<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Social Development minister Lindiwe Zulu said that the need to introduce a basic income grant has become an urgent consideration for the government.<\/p>\n<p>Presenting her departmental budget speech on 25 May, Zulu said her department has developed a Basic Income Grant (BIG) discussion document that it has started consultations on.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese consultations are targeted at developing the BIG financing mechanism for the unemployed population group that is aged 19 \u2014 59 years,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Zulu said that a secondary process around a new BIG is being discussed by the Nedlac.<\/p>\n<p>The ANC has previously 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<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/506136\/economic-impact-of-riots-and-looting-in-south-africa-and-wider-emerging-problems\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Economic impact of riots and looting in South Africa and wider emerging problems<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Cyril Ramaphosa says that government is currently investigating the feasibility of introducing a basic income grant in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":467482,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-506914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506914"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":506934,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506914\/revisions\/506934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}