Various civil society groups marched from KwaLanga to Kariega Town Hall to demand the R350 Social Relief of Distress grant be made a Basic Income Grant of R1,500.
NEHAW condemns the fact that Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana did not increase the R250 relief Grant
Various civil society groups marched from KwaLanga to Kariega Town Hall to demand the R350 Social Relief of Distress grant be made a Basic Income Grant of R1,500.
The National Education, Health, and Allied Workers Union (NEHAWU) condemns the National Treasury for not increasing the R350 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) Grant.
NEHAWU says Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s Budget Speech has not made any inflation-linked adjustment to the R350 Relief Grant, let alone increment, and it remains recalcitrant in its opposition to the immediate and urgent implementation of the Basic Income Grant.
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The union says it is a disgrace to boast about attaining the primary budget surplus while depriving and plundering the poor into extreme and desperate poverty.
The introduction of the SRD Grant at R350 in May 2020 as part of the government’s response to the socioeconomic impact of COVID-19 was welcomed as a step in a progressive direction.
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NEHAWU says this R350 Relief Grant is inadequate to address and reduce the scourge of extreme poverty.
“It is not even a means of survival as it is even less than half of the Food Poverty Line, which is South Africa’s measurement of extreme or absolute poverty, against the backdrop of the unfolding cost of living and poverty crisis in which food and electricity prices are far outpacing headline inflation,” NEHAWU stated.