Social security spending increased
22 October 2008
The government has increased all social security grants by R20 with effect from 1 October as part of a range of interventions to protect poorer South Africans from soaring food prices.
South Africa's disability and old age grants were last increased by R70 to R940 a month in April, and its child support grants by R10 in April and a further R10 in October to R220 a month.
Social grant provision is the government's biggest poverty relief programme, with over 12.4-million grant beneficiaries set to cost the state over R75-billion in 2008/09.
Delivering his medium term budget policy statement in Parliament on Tuesday, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said the latest increase meant that grant beneficiaries would not have to wait until April 2009 to see the buying power of their grants protected.
Child support grants are to be extended to include children up to 15 years old from January 2009.
The qualifying age for South African men for state old age pensions was reduced from 65 to 63 this year, and will come down to 61 in 2009 and to 60 by 2010, bringing men in line with women, who already get their grant at 60.
Manuel said several of the government's poverty relief programmes would continue over the medium term, including increased agricultural support to enhance government's efforts to ensure food security.
Extra resources have also gone towards the country's school feeding programme, which focuses on rural and township schools, and towards the agricultural starter pack programme.
"In total, adjustments to deal with the short- and longer-term implications of higher food prices amount to R11-billion over the next three years," Manuel said.
The storm currently prevailing on global markets would not sway the government in its fight against poverty and unemployment, Manuel told Parliament.
South Africa's challenges were "to eliminate poverty, to raise employment, to broaden opportunity and to improve the lives of all, particularly the most disadvantaged among us.
"We will remain focused on meeting these challenges during the present storm and beyond."
Manuel highlighted the government's commitment to putting people first and to adopting policies that supported growth and development.
"The unemployment rate declined from about 29.3 percent in 2003 to 23 percent today. Nevertheless, employment is still unacceptably high, and a critical objective of an economic policy over the next five years is to create work opportunities," he said.
For the creation of jobs, however, the South African economy needed to grow, as well as to refocus on developing more labour-intensive projects.
The 2009 Budget, Manuel said, would see further resources allocated to employment-intensive programmes in the public sector, as well as incentive programmes for private employers and non-governmental organisations to use more labour-intensive methods.
Source: BuaNews
