EDITORIAL: Grants are not the answer

SOCIAL grants have been one of the most successful of the democratic government’s policies, reducing poverty significantly and bringing life and economic activity even to some of SA’s poorest and remote communities.

Yet the government’s proposals to extend the child support grant from 18 to 21-year-olds is, in a sense, an admission of defeat.

The system was designed to benefit those who were not able to participate in the labour force: children, the elderly and the sick and disabled. It was never meant to be the basic income grant called for by the Congress of South African Trade Unions nor a “dole” for those unable to get jobs.

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