DA wants R800 child grant to fight malnutrition

THE DA wants to double the child support grant if it gets into government next year.

Its leader‚ Mmusi Maimane‚ said the amount should be R800 to be sufficient to raise a child and fight malnutrition.

He was addressing the media in Tshwane about the party’s proposed resolutions ahead of this weekend’s elective conference.

“I think it is criminal in South Africa that one in four children die every day thanks to malnutrition. So whatever social assistance package you put forward to South Africans invariably does not address the question of malnutrition‚” Maimane said.

He said the DA’s resolution wanted to raise the amount to be in line with what it cost to raise a child.

“There have been a number of debates – there were people who raised the debate about ‘can we put vouchers on the table?’ That will be debated.”

He said others favoured a cash transfer.

“Even with including the increase this year to R410, it simply isn’t sufficient as an assault on malnutrition.”

Maimane was accompanied by Gwen Ngwenya‚ the party’s head of policy‚ who said the DA policy resolutions were to make a South Africa that worked for all.

“To get a South Africa that works, we must articulate how we are going to get people to work. We, secondly, must articulate how we are going to create the environment for work and, thirdly, how we are going to ensure that nobody is left behind and out of work‚” Ngwenya said.

Maimane said as part of ensuring no one was left out of the job market‚ they planned to introduce an exemption certificate which would allow workers to get into jobs paying below the minimum wage.

He said this was meant to get workers who had been unemployed for more than a year to work, even when their prospective employer could not afford to pay the minimum wage. – TimesLIVE