Johannesburg - Black Sash, a civil rights advocacy group, has reacted to the news that the department of social development has decided to extend the Covid-19 social relief distress (SRD) grant for another 12 months.
The announcement was made by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana during his Mid-term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) on Wednesday.
The Covid-19 social relief of distress grant was first announced at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. It has been extended by a year to March of 2024. The minister said the extension of the grant must be matched by an increase in revenue, a decrease in spending, or both.
According to the minister, the government's spending on support for poor households in the medium-term expenditure framework period will still reach R3.5 billion.
Black Sash National Advocacy manager Hoodah Abrahams-Fayker said even though Black Sash welcomes the news of the extension, the current regime of the grant still leaves millions of deserving South Africans in the cold.
There was still evidence that the application of the regulations is still excluding millions that require the grant and it is by design. There are still millions that are needing social assistance,” said Abrahams-Fayker.
Several civil society organisations, including the Black Sash, the IEJ, the CALS, and others, have been calling on the government to make the grant permanent and increase it to at least R624. In a press statement today, the Black Sash had been inundated with calls from people asking how to prove their eligibility.
“It is disappointing that this grant has not reached those who need it the most because of administrative challenges, stringent eligibility criteria, outdated databases resulting in inaccurate rejections, delays with payment and delays with reconsideration and appeals,” Abrahams-Fayker added.
The Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant was initiated in March 2020 as a measure to help individuals affected by the economic and social impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. As such, Black Sash says the grant continues to be of benefit to more than 10 million recipients.
This year, the civil right advocacy group took the government to court over what it said was an "arbitrary and exclusionary" nature of the qualifying criteria imposed on citizens. In April 2022, the government attempted to reduce the budget for grants and without consultation and passed regulations which decreased the qualifying threshold for the SRD grant from R595 to R350.
In June 2022, Black Sash, represented by the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS), launched an urgent application to the High Court in Pretoria, challenging the arbitrary and exclusionary nature of this new qualifying requirement, amongst other grounds of review.
On 16 August 2022, and in direct response to the court challenge instituted by Black Sash, the Department of Social Development (DSD) announced amendments to the SRD grant regulations.
The Star