Department: no plan to extend R350 grant

THE Department of Social Development says there are no plans to extend the R350 social relief of distress grant despite growing calls for the programme to be renewed.

The grant was introduced last year by President Cyril Ramaphosa as part of social relief initiatives to tackle the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The grant has benefited millions of unemployed South Africans.

Earlier this year, when the grant was extended by Ramaphosa for a further three months, Sassa said it had processed over 9 million applications each month since May last year. In January it had paid more than 6.5 million grants per month. The total expenditure had exceeded R16 billion.

On April 30, Sassa announced the grant was coming to an end but that applications waiting to be processed would still be paid.

Despite the end of the grant being set, many civil society organisations have gained strength from the calls for a basic income grant. While the idea of a basic income has been endorsed by the government, it’s unclear when such a grant would be implemented.

Under the banner of #paythegrants, civil society bodies have called for the extension of the SRD grant. Amandla, a campaign-focused organisation, said it had collected more than 40 000 signatures from people calling for the SRD grant to be extended. A petition was delivered to the Union Buildings on Friday. Yesterday, Sassa said it had no mandate from the Social Development Department to extend the SRD grant. The department said it was willing to engage with civil society over grants being extended.