*SRD GRANT JUDGEMENT: GOVERNMENT WOULD BE SHORT-SIGHTED TO APPEAL* *GOOD* Statement by *Brett Herron* , *GOOD* Secretary General 03 February 2025 The GOOD Party calls on the Government of National Unity to implement the instructions of the Gauteng High Court to increase the value of the Social Relief of Distress Grant and extend it to all qualifying citizens in compliance with the Constitution. In a scathing judgment delivered in January, Judge ML Twala found that SASSA and the Department of Social Development “seem to be oblivious” to the suffering and indignation caused by inefficient administration of the grant and regulations that served as barriers to exclude eligible grant-seekers. Noting that the R370 a month grant was less than half the nation’s food poverty line, the judge said it was unconscionable for government to accept that the number of people with insufficient means to support themselves and their dependents was more than 18.3 million, but only budgeted to provide for 10.5 million people. "This is so because the regulations have placed barriers to exclude the eligible applicants from receiving the SRD grant,” the judge said. The extent of poverty and inequality in South Africa is the constitutional democracy’s greatest existential threat. That poverty remains largely colour-coded, as engineered by apartheid, compounds the injustice. While members of the GNU have ideological differences in opinion about grant-making in general, and whether or not to prioritise the needs of the poorest and most marginalised citizens, they are all bound by the Constitution and the GNU Statement of Intent that they signed. Under the heading Basic Minimum Programme of Priorities, the Statement of Intent is unequivocal, in Point 11.2, on the requirement to create a more just society: “By tackling poverty, spatial inequalities, food security and the high cost of living, providing a social safety net, improving access to and the quality of, basic services, and protecting workers’ rights.” That section obliges the GNU to take reasonable steps to achieve precisely the outcomes the Twala judgement seeks. For the GNU to appeal the judgement would only delay inevitably similar findings by a higher court, squander money on legal fees, and prolong the marginalisation and suffering of the poorest of the poor South Africans. The GOOD Party has campaigned for two years for the implementation of a Basic Income Grant, of at least R999 a month. This figure was set, following economic research on quantum and affordability to the fiscus, at R200 above the 2024 food poverty line, to provide for peoples’ other occasional basic needs such as toiletries or transport. GOOD therefore hopes to hear the President utter the words, “Basic”, “Income” and “Grant” in this week’s State of the Nation Address. This would represent a massive progressive statement of intent by the GNU to see, beyond ideological fissures, the necessity of developing a sustainable nation for all.