The largest trade union federation in South Africa, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, says it hopes that a basic income grant will be adopted at the African National Congress (ANC) policy conference in June 2007.
In its end-of-year statement, spokesperson Patrick Craven said: “We closed the year encouraged by Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya’s support for a reform [the basic income grant] that Cosatu has been campaigning for over many years.”
“This opens up space for a more rational debate on [the basic income grant] and will certainly take forward the call made by the [2002] ANC Stellenbosch national conference for debates within the [ruling] ANC on the matter.”
“We hope these debates will start in earnest and culminate in the adoption of the policy at the ANC policy conference in June 2007. There is wide support for the introduction of the basic income grant.”
The idea behind the grant is to provide a universal monthly payment to alleviate poverty to all adult South Africans. — I-Net Bridge