Food riots show the need for a basic income grant

Food riots show the need for a basic income grant

12 July 2021: A woman carries goods outside the looted Gold Spot shopping centre in Vosloorus, southeast of Johannesburg. (Photograph by Guillem Sartorio/ AFP) The government must immediately institute a basic income grant as an emergency measure if it wants to stop food riots from taking hold permanently, say activists.

With the expanded unemployment rate at 43.2%, its highest level ever, it would be foolish to label everyone who participated in the “Free Zuma” protests and took food from major supermarkets as “irrational and criminal”, says Mervyn Abrahams, programme director of the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity group.

“These protests are […]

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