South Africa May Grant Aid to Poor in Virus Crisis
(Bloomberg) --
South Africa is considering an emergency income grant to assist informal workers who can’t earn money during the nation’s 21-day lockdown to buy food, the Rapport newspaper said.
A task team of economic advisers finalized the plan in meetings at the weekend and will on Sunday present it to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s national command council for the government’s Covid-19 response effort, the Johannesburg-based paper reported without saying where it got the information or giving any amount.
While the official unemployment rate is 29%, the rate according to the expanded definition, which includes people who have given up looking for work, is almost 39%. Millions of South Africans therefore depend on informal trade and odd jobs to make a living and due to the lockdown most of that has been shut down.
An announcement about the grant could be made as early as Sunday, with the country’s recipients of old-age and child support grant likely to be included in the plan, said Caroline Skinner, a development economist at the University of Cape Town and a member of the grant task team, according to Rapport.
Link to original story: https://www.netwerk24.com/Nuus/Gesondheid/n-toelae-teen-kosnood-kom-20200328
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