Take note of zeroes, ANC

R151 000 000 000 has lots of zeroes, but R151bn is what our country will pay out in the current financial year for social grants. It includes money for, among other things, child support, foster care, disability, older persons and war veterans.

It’s honourable to give money to those who don’t have. In fact, for most of South Africa’s 17 million social grant beneficiaries, it is the only money they have for basics like food, housing, electricity and water.

That being said, it’s not a lot of money. If it’s the only source of income it will most definitely not ensure a decent life. The most you’d get for an old age grant is R1 620 while a child support grant provides R380 a month.

In the next two to three years, the number of people on social grants is expected to increase to over 18 million.

It will then cost us about R175bn a year.

This week, it emerged that there were more people collecting social grants than working.

The information comes from research conducted by the South African Institute of Race Relations.

IT SHOWED that while 17 million people in our country received social grants on a monthly basis, only 15.5 million were in formal jobs. Clearly, it is not a situation that is sustainable.

With our economy in a recession, and labelled junk by two of the three main global ratings agencies, money is leaving our country rather than coming in.

As a result, more jobs are likely to be lost.

That’s going to make it more and more difficult for the government to raise enough taxes to pay social grants in the coming years.

The ANC should take note of the situation. While many people have already lost faith in the party, more will do so if they don’t get paid their social grants.

The ANC should make job creation and economic growth its main focus, and not who will succeed Jacob Zuma as president of the party later this year.

Given the precarious economic situation we find ourselves in, there may not be much to inherit.