A vision to link social grant users with access to the economy appears one of the “stronger resolutions” emanating from the ANC’s social transformation commissions.
Vusi Madonsela, director general of the Department of Social Development, said that one of the two commissions had deliberated on the issue of ensuring that people did not become dependent on social grants.
This was one of several draft resolutions to be considered for adoption by a plenary meeting of delegates on Wednesday evening.
Through discussions the commission interpreted the draft resolution as an opportunity to link those accessing grants with skills development through initiatives like the Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP).
Using “able-bodied single mothers” as an example, Madonsela said that they could easily be linked, and given preference to the EPWP, ensuring eventual non-dependency once they had been skilled.
“We deliberated largely on people like that,” he said.
Extending the child-support grant to cover children as old as 18 appears to be an eventuality, but the resolution will ask for a “gradual” increase of age, which Madonsela said would “depend on the resources available”.
According to Madonsela the issue of a basic-income grant did not warrant inclusion in the drawing up of final resolutions to be accepted by Tuesday night’s plenary session.
The ANC will also seek to expand the number of no-fee schools in the country.
Other issues raised included the need to revisit land distribution and attempt to locate mechanisms to facilitate a process whose backlog means that less than 4% of land has been transferred in the past 12 years. Issues to be put before the plenary session include a review of the “willing seller-willing buyer principle” and discarding market-driven land reform.
Also to be reviewed at the plenary sessions is the transformation of the forest sector, youth development relating to the water, forestry and sanitation sector, the tourism levy so that it benefits the heritage sector, and local government to be compelled to provide funding for arts and culture.
An issue that will cause concern for people living in informal settlements is the draft resolution that “we develop appropriate legislation to prevent the mushrooming of informal settlements”.
Discussions at the ANC’s policy conference in June reflected that many delegates saw the issue as a “question of law and order” rather than a social developmental one, and if this interpretation is carried through it could see legislation such as the KwaZulu-Natal Prevention and Eradication of Slums Act — which, with transit camps and forced removals, has been criticised for its similarities to apartheid legislation — being passed.