Charles Molele
Government is seriously considering proposals to give 15 million poor South African families a stipend of R1 000 each for six months to lessen the economic impact brought about by the deadly COVID-19 outbreak, which has left many in the country hungry.
If endorsed by Cabinet, the proposal, which was discussed during one of the National Coronavirus Command Council meetings over this past weekend, would cost the fiscus over R82 billion.
This comes as the government is also considering a recommendation from experts to keep five of the country’s key metros – Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni, Tshwane, Ethekwini and Cape Town, under lockdown after April 30.
The five metros have been identified as epicentres of the Coronavirus pandemic in South Africa, with a combined number of infections currently standing at more than 1 900 by Tuesday afternoon.
President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to outline major economic and social relief measures on Tuesday evening.
“The view is that all the metros should not unlock or should remain locked down [beyond April 30]. All three metros in Gauteng, Ethekwini in KwaZulu Natal and Cape Town are all regarded as hit maps or hotspots. This was discussed on Saturday. The numbers [of infections in those metros] are going up. We can’t take the risk of unlocking them,” a senior government official told Inside Politics on Tuesday.
The senior government official said the decision to keep the country’s key metros unlocked could result in a further delay in the reopening of schools, loss of income and job losses, as many businesses will remain shut.
Already, companies such as Bidvest have instructed their employees to take unpaid leave, while Sun International announced its decision to permanently close two of its casinos – The Carousel in Hammanskraal, and Naledi Sun Hotel and Casino in Thaba Nchu, Free State Province.
The South African Airways has also said it would offer over 4 700 of its employees severance packages after Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan turned down its application for a R10 billion bailout, saying government would rather channel the money towards COVID-19 related economic and social relief efforts.
On Tuesday, Stats SA also released survey which said five in six businesses surveyed experienced a drop in turnover during the COVID-19 lockdown period. 85.4% of businesses surveyed reported turnover below the normal range.
The report further stated that 42.2% of respondents indicated that they are not confident that they have the financial resources to continue operating through the COVID-19 outbreak.
Highly-placed government sources who attended the National Coronavirus Command Council meetings over the weekend, also told Inside Politics this week that the issue of R1 000 stipend to15 million families who were not getting any form of income, was among the key proposals discussed during one of the National Command Council meetings at the weekend.
Figures provided by the Social Development department showed that 15 million families in South Africa were not receiving any form of income, according to government insiders who attended the meetings.
“That [the planned stipend for six months] is going to be very expensive. We are talking about 15 million people here. Initially, the suggestion was that we should give them three months stipend but other people felt this was not enough. The dominant view was that we should give them R1 000 stipend for six months. The issue was whether we should give them money or food vouchers. Remember while we have the responsibility to assist the poorest of the poor, we must also make sure we observe the social distancing rules. Social Development Department will still have to do screening of who those families are,” said the senior government official who asked not to be named.
There was no decision taken on whether or not to increase the social welfare grants benefiting over 17 million people, during the meeting at the weekend, according to the senior government official.
Some analysts have suggested increasing the amount of grants by about R500 would boost the country’s economy.
The senior government official said increasing the amount of social grants is something that needed to be discussed at Cabinet level and that any changes in social grants payments would require the finance minister to revise the 2020/2021 Budget he presented in February.
“Ordinarily, we can’t pretend as if that Budget still remains relevant. The grants might revise down. The budget was given in February. That Budget has not been revised. That was before COVID-19 hit SA. The minister must give a new budget, which would have to prioritize and reprioritize the key things. That’s something that I think cabinet will have to decide on,” the source told Inside Politics.
He continued: “The weekend meeting also discussed the draft framework for a curriculum recovery plan, which proposes different scenarios in terms of the reopening of schools.”
One of the things proposed in the document seen by Inside Politics is that only Grades 7 and Grade 12 should return to school on May 6.
“If you go by what Prof Salim Abdool Karim says, you can’t open schools. One of the challenges we are talking about is Grade 7 and Grade 12. Grade 7 must go to Grade 8 so that they can open up space for the new Grade 7, but Grade 12 as well must go so that we must deal with the system that will clock down. The other Grades, we have no problem, we can say pass one pass all. But you must have Grade 7 who are ready to be Grade 8 and you must have Grade 12 who are ready to go to the universities, because those have different admission criteria.”
(Compiled by Inside Politics staff)
