COVID-19 triggers growing support for a basic income grant in South Africa

Abstract

Since 1994, the South African Government has been hesitant to roll out a universal or basic income grant (BIG), even for the chronically poor and unemployed. Nevertheless, a temporary monthly R350 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant was introduced in April 2020 to help vulnerable South Africans during the COVID-19 pandemic. This chapter focuses on whether the South African public will support a higher and lasting BIG for the chronically poor in the future. The chapter reflects on how the SRD grant lessened the economic impact of COVID-19 on the general conditions of millions of unemployed and chronically poor and whether such a grant is a feasible post-pandemic policy option. Data from the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and the Human Sciences Research Council???s (HSRC) COVID-19 Democracy Survey are used to demonstrate that many South Africans support a regular SRD grant and for making it permanent. Such a grant could be incrementally implemented as a regularly assessed pilot intervention that is progressively expanded to those most in need.