Herman Mashaba’s ActionSA, which plans to contest national and provincial elections for the first time in 2024, has proposed the implementation of a universal basic income grant (BIG) for a maximum of three years for eligible South Africans.
The party, which is part of the Multi-Party Charter for SA, which seeks to oust the ANC from government, proposes that BIG eligibility be calculated at the food poverty line in year one, the lower-bound poverty line in year two and the upper-bound poverty line in year three. Stats SA measures the food poverty line at R663 per person per month, the lower-bound poverty line at R945 and the upper-bound poverty line at R1,417.
The proposal, which was debated by the more than 600 delegates at the party’s inaugural three-day policy conference in Johannesburg, does not detail how the BIG will be funded.
Party chair Michael Beaumont told Business Day that the party would detail how the proposal would be funded in an “alternative budget” that would be tabled ahead of the government’s February 2024 budget.
Civil society groups and social development minister Lindiwe Zulu have been clamouring for the introduction of a BIG, and National Treasury has been looking at the possibilities.
The danger for the cash-strapped government, which has set a target of achieving a primary budget surplus — where revenue exceeds non-interest spending — in the 2024 fiscal year, is that pressure will build for the temporary measure to become permanent.
“All adult South Africans earning below the Sars [SA Revenue Service] income tax threshold and all children eligible for the Child Support Grant will be automatically registered to receive the universal Basic Income Grant stimulus. All other South Africans are eligible but will have to register to receive payments,” the proposal reads.
The policies to be discussed at the ActionSA conference include a proposal on economic prosperity, energy security, economic justice, education, healthcare, public service, climate and the environment and foreign policy, as well as rural development and traditional affairs.
Launched in 2020 after Mashaba resigned from the DA, the party first contested the 2021 municipal polls where it won 90 seats across six municipalities where it contested.
Mashaba said on the first day of the policy conference on Tuesday that he would not work with the ANC in a possible coalition government, adding he would rather leave the party which he founded.
“South Africans know who has governed for the past 29 years, which has seen unemployment reach all-time highs, stage 6 load-shedding become the norm, and our country become the most unequal nation on earth,” he said.
On immigration Mashaba said: “The blame for our immigration crisis belongs at the feet of our government who have failed to police our borders, who have failed to document people entering SA , and who have failed to deport those who have committed crimes.”
The policy conference continues until Thursday.
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