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Equal Education hosted a provincial meeting on 13 October 2020, in Tembisa, a township east of Johannesburg. The meeting was on Basic Income Grant (BIG) and the speaker was one of the leaders from the Pay The Grants campaign.
The #PayTheGrants campaign forms part of the C19 people’s coalition under the cash transfer group. The campaign is about holding the state accountable for its failure to implement the R350 COVID-19 Social Relief for Distress (SRD) grant. One of the missions of this campaign is to raise awareness and mobilise support for the BIG.
BIG is set to be a certain amount paid by the state on a monthly basis to every person in the country, regardless of age, income bracket, or employment status. The aim for the #PayTheGrants campaign is raising awareness and mobilising for BIG for all.
The pandemic has led to a global economic and humanitarian crisis. South Africa with its triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality is in a dire situation that has become even worse. People lost their jobs, and food insecurity increased exponentially. But these economic and social issues were a norm to many even before the Coronavirus outbreak.
During the provincial meeting, the discussion was about how BIG would help many South African’s to have access of food security, and help people with their basic needs. But BIG is not a solution to poverty and cannot fix all our problems. But it could fulfil everyone’s right to food, health, housing and access to education.
On the other side, the facilitators of Equal Education felt that BIG would terrorise the country if it was implemented. They believe it will create laziness and people will no longer want to work because they rely on BIG. But others did say that it is a good idea since it will help people who are not working and are suffering from poverty.
This article was submitted on 18 October 2020. You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and Karibu! Online (www.Karibu.org.za), and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
