Costs of basic necessities going up and up
The author argues that government is failing to respond to the lived reality of communities by increasing the amount of the ‘Covid’ grant given to the poorest and making it more accessible.
Social grants
Unions and unemployed unite against budget austerity
The finance minister would deny in his speech that he was presenting an austerity budget, but confirmed the expectations of public sector unions and the unemployed who marched in Cape Town against budget austerity.
Activists march against austerity budget
The finance minister announced the extension of the SRD grant by a year while activists are calling for a basic income grant of R1,500 a month.
2021 – The wrap
These are some of the stories we brought you in 2021. Expect more to follow in 2022.
Covid grant does even less as food prices soar
Food prices are rising as SDR grant recipients struggle to buy basic necessities.
Activists and union members march for Basic Income Grant
The Cry of the Xcluded demand a basic income grant of R1,500 which they say will meet the immediate needs of the unemployed.
Call to extend and increase Covid grant
The end of January marks the end of the Social Relief of Distress grant of R350, disbursed by Sassa, but civil society organisations have called for an extension.
SASSA beneficiaries defy curfew to get in front of the queue
Long snaking queues are still the order of the day at the social security agency, Sassa, after 302 days of lockdown in South Africa.
Civil society demands extension and increase of COVID social relief grants
The organisations are also demanding that a comprehensive plan for a guaranteed basic income be put in place in the next national budget.
African nationals remain outsiders in SA
South Africa is said to have overcome the peak in covid-19 cases, while many African nationals will take much longer to recover from the lockdown.
28-year-old mother of two without an ID
Tomase still has longer to wait for her ID document that will give her and her children access to a social grant or the covid-19 emergency relief grant as a cushion against their grinding poverty.
The food crisis and hunger pandemic
The measures taken by government to slow the spread of COVID-19 have unmasked the face of racialised and gendered inequalities hiding in the folds of democracy.
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