In his State of the Nation Address (SONA) in February this year, South Africa’s and ANC President Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa reflected on the positive side of the 30-year period since the democratic breakthrough of 1994, when the all-inclusive/enfranchised elections were held for the first time on the 27 and 28 (and extended to 29) April in our country.
The president described (t)his story of “Tintswalo”, an imaginary girl born at about this time, three decades ago in 1994, and growing up to enjoy all what the democratic government had to offer and/or had delivered to her as a reflection of success.
The speech tells the one, even though truthful, part of the story but was incomplete. It failed to acknowledge the other part of the story, which should reflect on the setbacks or lack of progress for “Tinyiko”, another imaginary young woman, also born at around the same time and (who) has nothing to show as much as Tintswalo has.
A 30-year-old Tinyiko, like many of her peers, is unemployed and has never been employed. In fact, she may never be employed for the youth unemployment remains higher than the percentage of the overall joblessness. The latter itself being high at 41.1% by end of 2023 according to Statistics South Africa if it includes her as a so-called “discouraged” work-seeker. In its Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) of quarter 4 of 2022, StatsSA, has the youth joblessness, for 15–34-year age bracket, standing at 49.83%.
Tinyiko’s mother, a 56-year-old, was herself retrenched at a clothing factory in 1992 when she was 24 years old and having been employed for a few years. She has never worked again to date. Tinyiko’s 58-year-old father was unfortunately retrenched in 2009, following the 2007/08 “Great Recession”, but occasionally gets “piece jobs” on an ad-hoc basis as a silkscreen printer.
Both of Tinyiko’s parents are “young enough” and can’t qualify for an old-age grant and, like Tinyiko herself, did not get any steady income, neither from the grants nor from employment for years. They began qualifying and getting Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant of R350, which was introduced back in 2021, “thanks” to the Covid-19 pandemic.
This is despite the fact that the amount of R350, meagre as it is, never increased in that three-year period, until in March 2024 when it was raised by a mere R20 or 5.7%. The R350 SRD grant has lost some purchasing power it had then and, at R370, remains low.
Whilst Tinyiko hopes to get employed at some stage, she has meanwhile “resigned” herself to receiving the R350 SRD grant for the foreseeable future. Her parents are looking forward to reaching 60 years of age to get access to the old-age grant, respectively, in about four years’ and two years’ time. This is because the SRD grant of R350 is way inadequate as compared to the current R2 180 old-age grant a month.
While the unmarried Tinyiko does collect child support grant of R530 for her only child, a six-year-old, and together with the R350 SDR grants for her and her parents, the total income of R1 640 does not “add up” to make “ends meet” for their everyday needs. They barely survive and are trapped in grinding poverty, even though they may not be regarded as destitute, depending on the definitions denoted in this regard.
The situation would have been better had the Minister of Finance, in his February 2024 Budget Speech, announced the introduction of a basic income grant/guarantee (BIG) at R798 (or R800) per person per month, effective from the April 1. According to the Social Policy Initiative (SPI), R798 is the food poverty line for 2023. The Institute of Economic Justice (IEJ) argues that this amount will only help an individual to meet their food requirements.
Otherwise, both institutes and several more entities believe that R1 500 per person per month is what an individual needs to sustainably survive, noting that the upper-end of poverty line was R1 300 in 2021, according to the Stats SA. Whilst the funding of such an expense is outside this piece and is a debate for another day, both organizations and other proponents of BIG have proposals on answering the question. “…where will the money come from?...”
In the absence of BIG payable at R800 as a start, and R1 500 as an ideal amount, Tinyiko would remain trapped in this life of grinding poverty until she reaches 60 years of age, in about 30 years’ time from now. This is particularly knowing that her chances of getting employment are zero, in the light of the high level of joblessness and its structural nature, let alone her low levels of skills.
Whilst Tintswalo’s story represents progress in changing and improving the life for a sizeable section of the population, something which should be commended, Tinyiko’s is a story that reflects the plight of, also a significant part of the population, and whose dire socio-economic situation needs to be addressed.
Without this being done, the gap between Tintswalo and Tinyiko would simply widen as the former gets opportunities, rightfully so, to continue with better and well-paying jobs with the latter remaining in deepening poverty, worsened by joblessness, and low social wage and social grants.
Will this status quo be sustainable? The answer is certainly no, and that something has to be done to ensure that the plight of Tinyiko and other millions (of) Tinyiko’s out there is addressed, whilst sustaining the progress made by Tintswalo and millions other Tintswalo’s. The July 2021 unrest was a window of warning and we can only ignore this at our own peril as we enter the fourth decade of democracy.
Katishi Masemola is the former General Secretary of the Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU). He is currently a Director & Consultant at SEMO Advisory, an Author of two books: “Dear Mama” (2023) and “An Anti-Apartheid Activist (Made) in Me” (2023) and plans publishing 2 to 3 more books in 2024