Johannesburg - The Democratic Alliance (DA) has launched a social development policy campaign to protect social grants from the African National Congress (ANC), saying it was corrupt.
The new policy seeks to assist poor and vulnerable people from facing socio-economic difficulties. It also wants to increase the child support grant and also extend the child grant to learners until they complete their National Senior Certificate (NSC).
It said the ANC had plundered the fiscus over the past three decades and it had now come full circle.
"A total of 17 million of the most vulnerable South Africans are now at severe risk of losing their grants because of a party that puts itself before its citizens,” it said.
While social grants and other forms of social welfare are not regarded as an adequate substitute for economic growth and job creation, the DA said they played a vital role in protecting the most vulnerable in society from extreme poverty.
Despite the social policy, the party has a set of targeted interventions to ensure that the ANC does not get the funds. Some of the key interventions are:
- Increase the child support grant to the same level as the official food poverty line. This means that the child support grant, under a DA government, would be increased from R480 to R624.
- Ensure the elderly are financially stable in their retirement through introducing automatic enrolment of employees in pension schemes, who can choose to opt out of the scheme should they wish.
- Consider empowering the unemployed with cash transfers for basic services.
- To lower the cost of food, a DA national government would reduce the taxes South Africans must pay for essential food items.
- Ensure that the poor have access to quality basic health-care services through Universal Health Coverage.
- Reduce teenage pregnancy by providing increased access to sex education, and contraception methods in high schools.
- Develop and implement fatherhood programmes with NGOs and community centres that provide family and children services and initiatives.
- Create a national plan to tackle homelessness in South Africa. Currently, without a national policy, there is no fair distribution of funds across provinces to address homelessness.
- Ensure that survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) can easily access the help they need. This means providing them with important support services, such as health care, legal assistance, shelter, and essential items like dignity kits.
- Increase safe spaces for children at risk of abuse or exposure to violence or risky activities (gangs, drugs, and alcohol).
Meanwhile, the DA dismissed claims that it would take away the grants after taking power.
“Social grants are a constitutional right and any suggestion that the DA would take them away if elected into national government is patently false and misleading,” it said.
Furthermore, it has encouraged citizens to read its policy and join the fight against poverty.
kamogelo.moichela@inl.co.za
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