Public criticism has been aired that SA’s social grant hike is not on par with inflation.
|||Gladys King, 72, sat in her two-bedroom home in Wentworth, south of Durban, on Wednesday watching as Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan unveiled the government’s R1-trillion Budget. She eagerly waited for him to get to the part relating to social grants.
When he did, and announced a R60 increase, she shook her head.
“Peanuts,” King said.
“What can you do with R60? A loaf of bread alone costs R10, a one-way taxi fare into town is R9. R60 is peanuts,” she said.
King, who lives with her son, Craig Marillier, who cannot work because of a medical condition and who also lives off a social grant, said their expenditure exceeded their combined social grant income.
“I only get R950 from the government because I was medically boarded from the company I worked for and get a little from them. All in all we get just over R2 000 a month. But our electricity and water account sometimes costs R2 000. It is tough, really tough,” King said.
Gordhan’s social grant increase barely kept up with inflation and, according to economists, was not on par with food inflation.
Gordhan announced that the state old-age grant would rise from R1 140 to R1 200 and from R1 160 to R1 220 for over 75s.
The disability grant rose from R1 140 to R1 200, the foster care grant from R740 to R770, the care dependency grant from R1 140 to R1 200 and the child support grant from R265 to R280.
Concerned
Nkosikhulule Nyembezi, spokesman for the Black Sash Trust, said that while they welcomed the “continued commitment” to provide social grants, they remained concerned that the minister did not announce any plans to increase the number of food items that are exempted from VAT.
“This in light of yet another General Household Survey, which estimates that 20 percent of South African households have inadequate or severely inadequate access to food,” Nyembezi said.
He said he was disappointed that Gordhan said nothing about an electricity subsidy for people.
“(There was) no concrete plan to respond to the plight of ordinary people who are faced with power disconnections and huge municipal services debt.
“This is particularly important in the face of the three-year tariff increase of 24.8 percent on average in April 2010, followed by another average increase of 25.8 percent from April last year and a further increase of 25.9 percent on average from April this year.
“(The speech) fell short of offering immediate relief to the struggling households, detailing how government will revise upwards the kilowatts of electricity subsidy to households in order to make it possible to run income-generation activities at home, so as to change the situation where ordinary families in RDP houses cannot even simultaneously connect a kettle, a stove and an iron,” Nyembezi said.
Margie Smith, spokeswoman for The Association for the Aged, said the R60 increase was insufficient to relieve the hardship many pensioners faced.
“The problem is caused by three major factors ... the ever increasing cost of basic food, high rentals and the extraordinarily high cost of electricity.
“For example, an elderly person living in the community will now receive R1 200, but of this, 28 percent will be paid in rent, 26 percent in utilities and the remaining 46 percent must provide food, clothing, medication, transport and other needs, such as toiletries.
Essential
“What happens in the community is that elderly people simply do not have funds to buy anything extra, and more often than not they do without essential food and medication in order to survive,” she said.
For King, the R60 increase would barely make a difference, she said.
“We struggle to make ends meet and I have resorted to selling chips and sweets to the schoolchildren. I was expecting more from the finance minister for all the people out there who are battling,” she said. - Daily News