WATCH | Community groups demand R1,500 monthly grant and jobs

Community groups from Cape Town protested outside parliament, where the medium-term budget policy statement was delivered on Wednesday, to voice their demands for government spending to be focused on the poor.

Leaders and attendees came from townships surrounding the city such as Langa, Khayelitsha and Gugulethu.

“You are delivering to the wrong constituency. You are delivering to the rich. You are delivering to corporate. Turn about, deliver to the poor,” said Madoda Cuphe, organiser of the Anti-Austerity Forum.

“It’s been 28 years [since] we were promised a better life. Yet we are told it's not in the budget. So we are here to say put it in the budget.”

Other organisations at the event included the Back2Work Campaign, the People's Health Movement, and the Movement for Change and Social Justice.

Attendees and leaders want finance minister Enoch Godongwana to prioritise job creation through the construction of housing and public infrastructure. They also want a basic income grant of R1,500, subsidised public transport and improved service delivery.

“In the communities we come from, more than 60% of the people don’t work. Of those who work, many earn less than the national wage of R3,500. Yet the food prices are going up. Electricity is going up. Transport is going up,” said Cuphe.

Cuphe told the crowd a revolution could be near if change did not happen.

“The 30-million people with their children and their mothers are going to wake up with their kitchen knives. They are going to make this country ungovernable.”

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