A basic income grant (BIG) is affordable, sustainable and desirable, a coalition arguing for the adoption of such a scheme said on Thursday.
The coalition of civil society organisations told journalists at a press briefing at the Turffontein racecourse that giving every South African a basic income of R120 a month would cost between R10- and R24-billion a year.
The BIG advocacy group includes the Black Sash, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), the South African NGO Coalition and the South African Council of Churches.
Speaking at the launch of the coalition’s report on financing the grant, Cosatu’s parliamentary officer, Neil Coleman, said it is ”currently the best programme on the table” to break the fetters that keep up to half of all South Africans in poverty.
Current social grants, such as those for pensioners and children, are not sufficient. Nor is the government’s expanded public works programme by itself.
Coleman added that the government has not explicitly rejected the BIG proposal. Conflicting statements on the issue by the government simply shows various officials are having difficulty dealing with the concept in the absence of firm ideas on how to administer and pay for it.
”The finance proposals take the process one step further [and in doing so] addresses some of the concerns of government leaders,” Coleman said.
He and Black Sash national director Marcella Naidoo are hopeful the financing proposals will now start a public debate.
The group’s economist, Mike Samson, said he expects the cost of the BIG to decrease over time as the scheme, with other socio-economic interventions, lifts more South Africans out of absolute poverty.
Samson said the effect of the BIG will be dramatic — reducing poverty by 79,4% nationwide, 83% in the Western Cape, 79,4% in Gauteng and 81,1% in KwaZulu-Natal.
Four teams of economists came up with different ways to fund the BIG.
Samson said the best will be a combination of these, drawing funds from the current income, value-added, excise and corporate taxes.
”South Africa has considerable room to up taxes without undermining its international competitiveness,” he said.
The advocacy group said the BIG will give many unemployed the security they need to seek and find jobs. Evidence to hand shows those benefiting from the current grants are more aggressive in seeking jobs than those who do not. For many poor people it is also the key to unlocking access to health services, education and housing.
The Democratic Alliance welcomed the launch of the report, saying South Africa’s current unemployment rate is four times the rate experienced by the United States during its Great Depression.
”While the creation of jobs must be our number-one priority, government needs to realise that bold, innovative solutions are required to protect the desperately poor in the interim — the BIG is one such solution,” the DA’s Mike Waters said.
”We have been calling for the introduction of a BIG for some time and are pleased to see a coordinated effort from civil society in support of the policy.”
According to the government’s own Taylor report, the introduction of a BIG will ”nearly completely eliminate” extreme poverty, and it will reduce to zero the number of poor South Africans excluded from the social security system, Waters said.
This means that about 6,3-million people will be moved out of poverty and the number of destitute individuals will fall by about 10,2-million — the number currently excluded from existing grants. — Sapa