ANC wants age limit for child grants raised:

THE ANC wants the government to extend the age limit for child grants from 18 to 21.

This decision was taken by the party’s social transformation committee at its national policy conference in Nasrec.

This recommendation would be tabled at the party’s December national conference where it is expected to be adopted as party policy.

Should this happen‚ more recipients will be added to the existing 17 million grant recipients’ register‚ putting strain on the country’s budget.

Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said the limit extension would only apply to those children who remained in school.

“We did not consider the financial consequences of increasing grants . . . We will then sit down and work out whether it is affordable or not‚” she said.

Sisulu conceded that often social transformation proposals were met with resistance from the Treasury because of the added cost to the state.

Addressing the media alongside Sisulu‚ Deputy Minister in the Presidency Buti Manamela said while the ANC did not want more people on social grants‚ it had to respond to the dire poverty of the population.

“It is not the desire of the ANC to keep people as long as possible on the social grant system. It is also not the desire of the ANC to see people die of hunger‚” he said.

Manamela said the ANC agreed sanitary towels should be free for girls at schools.

The conference did not agree to the decriminalisation of sex work as proposed by delegates from Gauteng. Sisulu said the matter was defeated in the conference plenary.

“Plenary was not happy with decriminalising of sex workers [because] it was sprung on us in conference‚” she said.

Sisulu said it was not agreed on because ANC branches did not sufficiently debate the issue. “Gauteng feels we are unduly harsh on people trying to make a living.”

The Commission for Gender Equality has long called for the decriminalisation of sex work while HIV activists have argued that this would reduce HIV infections.