Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said on Thursday there was no intention to terminate the social relief of distress (SRD) grant.
Godongwana said the grant is likely to be converted into some form of grant such as an Employment Grant or Jobseekers Grant.
“What I want to assure the House on is that there is no intention to terminate the grant.
“Let's clear that up front because there has been a lot of misinformation that we have an intention to terminate the grant. There is no intention,” he said during a question and answer session in the National Assembly.
Mmusi Maimane, the leader of Build One South Africa, had questioned whether it would be preferable to use the SRD grant as an incentive scheme for people to find employment rather than as a grant for people to stay at home in light of the recent court ruling in which the government acknowledged it was unaffordable, meaning that the government will either remove it or not.
In the 2025/26 Budget, the social relief of distress has been budgeted to the tune of R235 billion.
In his response, Godongwana said he has been reaffirming the notion that there was a process in motion, which is the active labour market initiative.
“It may well be that this grant may emerge as an employment grant. I don't know. If colleagues have got some proposals to make, they must all approach (Employment and Labour) Minister (Nomakhosana) Meth, who is leading us in that regard,” he said.
Asked by DA MP Mark Burke about the costs of job seeking and how significant they were for unemployed people, he noted that a job seeker's grant was one of the packages that had been contemplated.
“Among other things that have been considered is the issue of small and medium enterprises and, therefore, part of that package would also be the same as what we call an entrepreneurial grant.
“That work is part of the active labour market review.”
Godongwana told the parliamentarians that since the SRD grant was introduced in 2020, the government spent about R35 billion.
“That grant is still pencilled in over the MTEF (Medium-Term Expenditure Framework) subject to the outcome of the discussions that are taking place around the labour market reforms.”
He added that there was also an employment incentive tax, which assisted and funded employers that employed young people.
“We spent about R30 billion on that grant. So there are a number of actions that are taking place.”
Godongwana stated that there was a notion that fiscal policy alone was the driver of economic growth.
“These ministers that are sitting next to me are involved in one way or the other in growth initiatives in their respective departments.”
EFF MP Omphile Maotwe asked what it would take for the National Treasury to introduce an unemployment grant to avoid high unemployment crisis levels standing at 42%.
According to Maotwe, the National Treasury has no strategy in place to maintain low unemployment, not even for the 2025/2026 fiscal framework.
“We have asked when they are going to introduce the unemployment grant because our people are unemployed. Even graduates are also unemployed, so we just need to know when we are implementing the unemployment grant for the people who are within the working age population because it is not their own doing that they can't find jobs,” she said.
Godongwana said it was the first time he had heard of a proposal for the unemployment grant.
“What I have heard are people who are talking about a Basic Income Grant in other words.”
He also said the fiscal framework dealt with the issue of unemployment.
“First and foremost, in the Budget, we are applying four pillars of growth. Among them is massive investment in infrastructure which we think will have an impact on the growth question,” he said.
“In so far as looking at unemployment, you know that there is what is called employment incentive, but what we are doing at the moment under the leadership of Minister Meth is to look at what form of grants there will be that the unemployment grant becomes one of those things,” Godongwana added.