Johannesburg – Government is considering reintroducing relief measures for distressed households following a backlash after President Cyril Ramaphosa’s comments that the state had no money to implement another economic stimulus package.
Asked last week about another round of relief measures for households and businesses, Ramaphosa told Sunday World that “right now we don’t have resources, that’s the fact of the matter”.
However, Ramaphosa’s administration now looks set to provide relief for families hardest hit by the global pandemic. He told a closed meeting of the ANCs national executive lekgotla that one of the most important parts of the initial R500-billion stimulus package was the temporary increase in the monthly amounts paid to social-grant recipients and the temporary introduction of a special Covid-19 grant for unemployed people.
“As the pandemic continues, and as these measures come to an end, we need to look at what effect it has on levels of poverty and hunger, both now and in the longer term. “Already a number of people are saying that the stoppage of these additional grants is going to have a profound impact,” he said, delivering his political overview at the gathering, which was also attended by ANC allies Cosatu and the SACP.
“We will see, for example, a marked increase in child malnutrition, which will have huge consequences for their development. It is in this context that our discussions on the possibility of further support for households need to be located, and specifically what are the best uses of scarce resources to protect our people from the worst ravages of hunger and poverty.” Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi expressed misgivings about the government’s Covid-19 socio-economic responses. Also speaking at the lekgotla, Losi said all the relief measures ended while the pandemic raged on and thousands of workers lost jobs and others were not allowed to work under the disaster management regulations.
Losi said: “Cosatu supported government on many of its responses to the pandemic convinced that these will assist in minimalizing the spread, preparing the nation to resist Covid-19 and in providing badly needed socio-economic relief to workers, the poor and the economy.
”However, we must express our deep anger and frustration with how the government and the banks have handled the socio-economic response to the pandemic.”
Losi said it was immoral for government to restrict workers in sectors such as liquor and tourism from working while not providing them with relief. The R200-billion loan guarantee scheme at the heart of the initial stimulus package had failed, she said.
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