THE ANC is working on a plan to have a permanent grant for unemployed people.
This was revealed by ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa when he opened the party’s Lekgotla 2024 at Birchwood Conference Centre in Ekurhuleni on Monday, 29 January.
He said the ruling party wanted to make sure that no one lives in poverty.
Ramaphosa said among other things this means that the ANC needed to improve the efficacy of measures to support the unemployed in Mzansi.
“We know that the special SRD grant (R350) that we introduced during Covid-19 led to major reductions in food poverty. It's estimated that the grant in his current form has reduced the number of people living in extreme poverty by at least two million there is therefore a strong case for a permanent form of a targeted income support grant for the unemployed within our fiscal constraints,” said Ramaphosa.
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He said while government has been able to provide employment through presidential employment stimulus, public employment programmes and presidential youth employment intervention, the challenge remains that millions of working age adults are unemployed.
“We need to create more jobs including public employment, social protection and to have an active labour market system,” he said.
Ramaphosa said since 1994, the ANC has used various mechanisms to distribute resources towards the poor in the country through the social wage.
He said in addition to grants, they have provided free basic services, healthcare, education and subsidised housing to poor people and working-class South Africans.
He pointed out that the Lekgotla was tasked to provide direction for the implementation of outlined in the January 8 statement which includes, winning elections decisively, intensify ANC renewal, to reconstruct the economy to create more jobs and growth, improving basic services and installing infrastructure, fight gender-based violence, ending load shedding, and fight crime.
He said this will be put together to form its manifesto that would be taken to the electorate.
“Unlike other parties, our deliberations are informed by experience, by the successes that we have achieved and also by the lessons that we have learned in governance,” he said.
