As election campaigning reaches fever pitch with three weeks to go before May 29, the ANC has committed to converting the R350-a-month social relief of distress (SRD) grant into a permanent, increased basic income grant (BIG).
This was announced by ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula on the party's campaign trail in eThekwini on Tuesday, where the ANC will be wooing voters in the hotly contested KwaZulu-Natal for the rest of this week.
Mbalula was confronted by ANC supporters and potential voters about high unemployment and poverty.
On Tuesday, as the ANC began its biggest campaign in KwaZulu-Natal where its top leaders are deployed across the province, Mbalula visited Amaoti, northwest of Durban, where unemployment and its consequences were a recurring theme during his interactions with the community.
“When we visit you, especially young people, the main cry is unemployment and there is crime because people are unemployed, that is why we are saying the next five years we are going to create 2.5-million jobs.
“The unemployed who get R350, that R350 we are going to increase it and we are going to change it to a basic income grant, and we are going to train thousands of young people and absorb them into the South African National Defence Force,” said Mbalula.
Mbalula says R350 SRD grant will be converted to basic income grant
Thousands of youngsters will be trained for the defence force: ANC SG
As election campaigning reaches fever pitch with three weeks to go before May 29, the ANC has committed to converting the R350-a-month social relief of distress (SRD) grant into a permanent, increased basic income grant (BIG).
This was announced by ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula on the party's campaign trail in eThekwini on Tuesday, where the ANC will be wooing voters in the hotly contested KwaZulu-Natal for the rest of this week.
Mbalula was confronted by ANC supporters and potential voters about high unemployment and poverty.
On Tuesday, as the ANC began its biggest campaign in KwaZulu-Natal where its top leaders are deployed across the province, Mbalula visited Amaoti, northwest of Durban, where unemployment and its consequences were a recurring theme during his interactions with the community.
“When we visit you, especially young people, the main cry is unemployment and there is crime because people are unemployed, that is why we are saying the next five years we are going to create 2.5-million jobs.
“The unemployed who get R350, that R350 we are going to increase it and we are going to change it to a basic income grant, and we are going to train thousands of young people and absorb them into the South African National Defence Force,” said Mbalula.
He emphasised that the ANC’s plan for the next five years will be creating jobs that neither discriminate on age nor experience at entry level.
Mbalula pleaded with those who are disappointed in the ANC to remember that they too belong to the party and that those who “spoil things are people like you and me, not the ANC”.
“The ANC belongs to you and I, it is our organisation, it is the organisation of the people, on May 29 let us all show the enemy that the ANC is the organisation of the people, not these fly by night parties.
“People are starting parties and fighting among each other immediately, but the ANC is still standing. I am talking about your ANC that has never changed, your ANC,” he added.
Mbalula was received warmly by the community, who asked for water provision that is constant and toilets to be built inside their yards. They told him that the ANC had already provided them with electricity, housing, clinics, schools and tarred roads.
They vowed to “never desert the ANC”.
Mbalula met a first-time voter who sang the ANC government's praises.
Anele Khuzwayo, a Unisa student, thanked the ANC for the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, saying she and her siblings would not have had higher education if it were not for the financial aid scheme.
Mbalula implored her to vote for the ANC to protect the existence of the scheme and ensure that others in her financial position also get a higher education.
The ANC election campaign continues across the province for the week, with some notable leaders including President Cyril Ramaphosa, SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila and Cosatu leaders.
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