From alleviating poverty to R350 grant payments — important quotes from Lindiwe Zulu

Social development minister Lindiwe Zulu gave an update on social welfare interventions being done to minimise the impact of the lockdown. She was part of the social cluster which addressed the nation on Monday, on amended lockdown regulations.

Here are some important quotes from her address:

Applications

“Given the limited financial resources available, we must ensure that money does only go to those who need it. I also get worried about the R350 grant, especially when I saw how many applications were rejected by Sassa. This is why I asked them to review their total applications.”

Review

“Sassa will on a monthly basis reassess all applications to ensure that where circumstances have changed, an income is received from any other source, the grant will not continue.”

Reopening ECD centres

“We are not opposed to the reopening. We want ECD centres to reopen. The steps we have taken is to ensure that when the centres reopen, the parents, caregivers don’t worry about the safety of their children. We had to be very quick, we had to do the best we can to make sure that our people are protected and that is why we want to take every necessary measure to ensure that children and staff are safe.”

Proposal for basic income grant

“Currently, the most vulnerable groups of our population are the youth between 18 and 24, and the elderly between 50-59. Targeting these groups first and then progressively expanding to other age groups may be warranted. The grant will be unconditional, individually targeted and at a level that will lift individual South Africans out of poverty.”

Alleviating hunger

“We have mapped out the entire country to see where exactly the hunger is. We have taken the data and information from Stats SA, we are connecting to the provinces. We will have to step up and do much more than what we have been able to do. We now have to look at the programmes that we have together with Sassa and say how do we expand them beyond their normal.”

Hunger and unemployment

“We are looking at the storm in the eye that is Covid-19, but we have another, which is hunger and unemployment. It must be understood that while we are responsible for the well being of South Africans, we are also dependent on [various departments], because the freedom of our people entirely depends on the growth of the economy.”