Durban — Civil rights organisations have slammed Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s Budget speech as anti-poor and not aligned with what was happening on the ground.
Kgothatso Sibanda, from the Black Sash, said Godongwana’s speech wasn’t aligned with what was happening on the ground.
“When it comes to social grants, increasing the child support grant from R480 to only R510 wasn’t enough. We had hoped that this grant would be increased to at least above the food poverty line of R663.
“The R350 SRD grant hasn’t been increased since its inception in 2020, while other social grants get increased annually.
“With this grant’s recipients of more than 7.8 million unemployed South Africans struggling to put food on their tables, and with everything going up on a month-to-month basis, we were hoping that this grant would be increased to at least just above the poverty line.”
She said they were hoping that the minister would touch on an administered and transparent grant payment system by the Postbank, which he didn’t.
Sibanda added that the social grant beneficiaries had been experiencing serious challenges when it came to grant collection since October.
KZN Civic Society Coalition spokesperson Cookie Edwards said she had hoped that the finance minister would consider putting aside funding to help fight the out-of-control gender-based violence and the escalating femicide.
“Our appeal is driven by the high prevalence of gender-based crime and violence in our country. We can’t curb the scourge of GBVF without resources, therefore putting more funding for the civic society to be able to fight crime and other social ills would have been a great welcome,” Edwards said.
The Phoenix Civic Movement’s Vivian Pillay said Godongwana’s Budget speech was anti-poor.
Pillay said that with the kind of Budget presented the rich would get richer, while the poor would get poorer.
“There was no hope for the R350 grant increase, and therefore definitely no hope for the 29 million unemployed masses of this country. The government has poured more money into corrupt state-owned organisations such as Eskom and SAA, with no guarantees of any returns,” he added.
Pillay said the grant should instead have been used to help alleviate poverty and the suffering of the poor masses who depend on government social relief grants.
SA Canegrowers chairperson Andrew Russell welcomed the minister’s announcement that the government plans to increase the Health Promotion Levy were not going to be implemented any more.
He added that with the many serious challenges facing South Africa’s canegrowers, the increase would have decimated the industry, costing the country much-needed jobs.
Agri SA’s economist Kulani Siweya acknowledged the measures put in place to assist the agricultural sector, while the government works to put Eskom on a firmer footing.
“Of particular note is the extension of the rebate of the Road Accident Fund levy for diesel used by manufacturers of foodstuff. This intervention will help to contain the cost of food production to the benefit of consumers,” Siweya added.
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