BL Premium reports that even though government is in the grip of a fiscal crisis, Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu is calling for the urgent introduction of a basic income grant to replace the Covid-19 social relief of distress grant when the latter expires at the end of April.

On Friday, all the major opposition parties expressed support for the idea, in a mini-plenary debate in the National Assembly. "We need to find pathways towards introducing a basic income grant, to mobilise for a social compact. We believe it is possible," the minister told MPs. The ANC has long supported a basic income grant. So have its alliance partner, Cosatu, civil society organisations and opposition parties. Most have voiced support for the introduction of a grant that caters for the unemployed between 18 years and 59 years old who do not qualify for social grants. But the tight fiscal position in which government finds itself — with mounting debt and ever-increasing debt service costs coupled with coronavirus pandemic spending — has required deep cuts to government expenditure that will make a basic income grant hard to implement. There is much concern about the removal of the Covid-19 grant given the widespread poverty in SA, which has been made worse by the joblessness caused by lockdowns to fight the disease. It was no longer a question of whether to introduce a basic income grant, Zulu said, but ones of how and when.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Linda Ensor at BusinessLive (paywall access only)

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page