Unemployed youth urges the government to make the Covid-19 unemployment grant permanent
On the 21st of April 2020, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the South African government will pay out a temporary Covid-19 social relief of distress grant to unemployed individuals to assist in fighting against poverty during this difficult time.
In his address, Ramaphosa announced that the new coronavirus unemployed grant of R350 will be paid to those who are unemployed and do not recieve any other social grant or Unemployment insurance fund(UIF). The president said that the grant will be paid for a period of six months, however, some citizens pleaded that it should be made permanent to assist the unemployed youth in meeting some of their basic needs.
Media reports has indicated that according to the unemployment figures released by statistics SA in February, there are around 6.7 million unemployed South Africans as per its Quarterly Labour Force Survey.
Julius Mohadi reported that the government should compensate the unemployed due to the fact that it is costly to attain skills in order to be employable. “Compiling and Printing out a CV cost you nothing less than what you do not have as an unemployed citizen.Failure for government to stretch its helping hand we will experience 10times unemployment rate on a next decade. It is a pure reality that unemployment rate is a very loyal friend to crime and crime is nothing but sin that we forever deteriorate our economy as the country, ” he said. Mohadi added that the government must inject financial assistance to the youth, that will be one of the greatest investment in history.
South Africa has a massive unemployment problem and solutions to reduce the high number of people out of work are difficult to find . Unemployed graduate Phindulo Mukhohva agreed that the grant should be made permanent but it should be given to the less fortunate.
“The grant will make a difference, particularly to the needy if it would be made permanent. However, formal procedures and protocols has to be followed in order to qualify for it,” said Mukhohva.
“After this pandemic, a lot of people will lose jobs and on the other hand, the government has been failing to create employment opportunities . For that reason, I think the grant should be made permanent to assist in eradicating poverty in our country,” another unemployed graduate Mabutho mtshali concluded.
