Covid social relief grant stopped despite pleas
DESPITE impassioned pleas for the Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant to be extended, the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) has confirmed that the grant has been terminated.
Human rights organisation Black Sash and pressure campaign #PayTheGrants demanded that the government extend the SRD grant, as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to take a devastating toll on individuals and families.
Nationwide protests against the termination of the grant took place at several Sassa offices and post offices.
The organiser of the protest at Bellville Sassa, Bravo Thompson, said: “No one felt happy about the grants being terminated. It’s bad because, at the end of the day, how do you cancel something that is people’s livelihood or maybe food? All the people are sick and tired of the government not giving them something to eat.”
Sassa confirmed that the Covid-19 SRD grant had been terminated as of Friday, April 30.
“This means that no new applications will be accepted after this date. However, all applications which have been approved and approved applicants who have not yet received payment will still be paid,” said Sassa spokesperson Shivani Wahab.
Some of the demands made by the Black Sash and #PayTheGrants prior to the termination of the SRD grant included that it be extended until it was turned into a basic income guarantee (BIG); the grant be increased to the food poverty line (R585 a month); the grant be expanded to include unemployed adults receiving the child support grant on behalf of children; the criteria for the SRD grant be reassessed and its administration improved; and the BIG be implemented for people aged 18 to 59, to at least the upperbound poverty line (R1 268).
“While the government’s wall of silence on this matter leading up to and on the day of termination itself was both heartbreakingly callous and enraging, it was not unexpected. And in that, we mobilised our efforts on a clear internal understanding that, regardless of what happened on the 30th, it was only the next step of many in this campaign,” the C-19 People’s Coalition’s Nathan Taylor said on behalf of #PayTheGrants.