South Africa torn over multibillion cost of fighting inequality

POLITICS and economics are set to collide over welfare payments in the world’s most unequal nation.

The first clue over which will prevail may come in South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s state-of-the-nation address on Thursday.

South Africa’s Treasury vowed to return state finances to a sustainable path, holding off expanding welfare measures in one of the world’s most unequal societies. Government bonds and the rand gained.

Record unemployment and deepening poverty has fuelled calls for the government to move toward a basic income grant, which would be the biggest of its kind globally, or to at least extend a temporary stipend of R350 a month paid to the unemployed during the pandemic permanent at that level or slightly higher. That measure added 10.3 million people to the welfare net.

The debate has pitted Ramaphosa, who has said a basic income grant is a possibility and has raised the idea several