STATEMENT BY BRETT HERRON, GOOD SECRETARY GENERAL
11 February 2021
WE NEED FIRMER COMMITMENTS TO THE COVID 19 VACCINE PROGRAMME, REAL TIMELINES ON EXTRA ELECTRICITY CAPACITY AND A BASIC INCOME GRANT
South Africa is skating on very thin ice and we are confronted by many challenges – separately and collectively working to undermine our progress and give South Africans a future that includes us all.
The ANC is running out of runway. One couldn’t but sympathise with the President trying valiantly to find the words in his State of the Nation address to comfort a country that feels increasingly anxious and fundamentally deflated.
There are a myriad of issues that require urgent attention but we will not succeed unless we:
• manage the Covid-19 pandemic in a way that allows us to return to social and economic activity,
• secure additional electricity and energy generation capacity and end loadshedding immediately,
• Radically improve our education system so that young school leavers are equipped to participate in a 21st century economy,
• Provide financial support, in the form of a basic income grant, so that no adult South African who is ready and willing to work but for whom the economy provides no opportunity to do so does not live a life with no access to any income.
COVID-19:
We welcome the nimble manner in which the South African Government is navigating the ever changing, and unpredictable, Covid-19 virus and the efficacy of the vaccines that have been developed.
We welcome the swift shift to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine while the efficacy of the Astra-Zeneca vaccine is studied further.
But we needed a lot more information on the full extent of the vaccine programme such as where we will receive the full extent of the vaccines we will require and when we can expect to fully implement the national vaccine programme.
ENERGY & ELECTRICITY:
We have little hope of emerging out of this pandemic with strong potential to grow our economy and create jobs if we do not stabilise the supply of electricity.
Year-after-year we hear promises of increased generation capacity but load-shedding continues to sabotage our economy, and our day-to-day lives, and the promised turn-around never materialises.
Extra electricity capacity is readily available, and from clean and renewable sources, and we need a very clear and unambiguous commitment to procuring it fast and feeding it into the grid.
We welcome the President’s announcements about imminent procurement of additional generation capacity but we were looking for a much greater sense of urgency and a commitment to timeframes that go beyond the over used “soon”.
EDUCATION:
The massive discrepancy between the quality of education offered to children in this country is unacceptable and perpetuates inequality. Unfortunately in the President’s narrative on turning the economy around through industrialisation, manufacturing and infrastructure he failed to address our unacceptable basic education system.
BASIC INCOME GRANT:
When an economy cannot provide jobs and relegates millions of people to a life without access to any income then the country has a duty to support.
No person should be expected to live day-to-day, month-to-month and years on end without access to any income whatsoever.
The right to an income as a basic human right that is derived from the fact that we are human.
We welcome the extension of the TERS grant until mid-March 2021 but this is insufficient. We have no choice but to make provision for a permanent basic income grant. The levels of poverty demand this and it is simply inhumane to withdraw the current grant from those who have come to rely on it. It must be extended.
The President has previously hinted at a Basic Income Grant, and South Africa has studied the feasibility of this for decades, it is disappointing that he did not make an announcement on this.
ENDS…