Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen stated on Friday that his party will not only protect the grant system if it came into government, but that it would also improve it.

During the African National Congress’ (ANC’s) 112th birthday celebration in Mpumalanga last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa claimed that social grants and the National Student Financial Aid Scheme would likely disappear should the ANC lose power.

Steenhuisen said that the DA was “unequivocally committed to social grants”, as they were an integral part of the party’s plan for building a strong safety net to ensure dignity and security for everyone living in South Africa.

He explained that the health of the social grant system was directly linked to the health of the economy, adding that under a DA government, the social grant system would in fact thrive because South Africa’s economy would thrive.

Steenhuisen laid out that his party would immediately raise the child support grant, currently at R510, to the food poverty line of R760, to bring immediate relief from hunger and malnutrition imperilling the health and life prospects of millions of children in South Africa.

He said the DA had been proposing this intervention for years and believed it could and should be implemented right away.

“Many people are concerned that the child grant is not used for the purpose intended and furthermore encourages people to have more children. This is simply not borne out by the evidence, which has shown that the child grant has been instrumental in reducing child poverty, improving child nutrition, health (including mental health) and schooling outcomes,” Steenhuisen said.

The DA additionally supports a basic income grant, but only in the context of economic growth that makes it affordable and viable.

“And we would improve the grant payment process itself, making the payment of grants more reliable and accessible, and combatting the payment failures and fraud that most recently deprived 150 000 beneficiaries of their January grants,” he added.

Steenhuisen explained that with a DA national government managing South Africa’s economy, millions of people would move off the grant and into the self-reliance and dignity of a job.

The combination of growing tax revenues and falling unemployment will take pressure off the grant system, growing its sustainability and enabling the payment of higher grants to those who need them.

He noted that next month, the party would present its Alternative Budget, showing how it could be achieved within the current budget envelope, by reprioritising spending.