Finance Minister Enoc Godongwana noted that due to the decline in people being reliant on the R350 Social Relief of Distress Grant, talks about whether to extend it is still in the works.

Some 27.8 million South Africans are social grant recipients – this translates to 46 percent of the population. Godongwana notes that government’s spending on the social wage is very high and has grown from R860 billion in 2018/19 to R1.1 trillion in 2021/22.

Meanwhile, AIDC economist Dominic Brown has lambasted Minister Godongwana for continuing the trend of being anti-poor.

Referring to the high number of municipalities in financial distress, Brown says that the situation will get worse. He says that municipalities are heavily reliant on resources from local government, and when these are squandered, it’s the poor that suffer.

[Picture: GCIS]