Graig-Lee Smith22 March 2021 | 9:59

Black Sash calls for R350 COVID-19 grant to be extended by a year

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni confirmed this week that provision had been made by Treasury to extend the R350 grant for unemployed people until April this year.

Black Sash calls for R350 COVID-19 grant to be extended by a year

FILE: Unemployed builders, tilers and plumbers hold signs seeking jobs on the side of the road in Johannesburg. Picture: AFP

CAPE TOWN - Human rights lobby group the Black Sash has called on government to extend the COVID-19 grant by another year.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni confirmed this week that provision had been made by Treasury to extend the R350 grant for unemployed people until April this year.

Social Grant Adjustment

Social Grant Adjustment

The Black Sash said that the decision by government to extend the grant until April 2021 was simply not good enough.

The organisation told Eyewitness News that more people would go hungry if the grant came to an end.

National advocacy manager, Hoodah Abrahams-Fayker: "Our bigger demand is that there also be a grant for the unemployed. The grant has only been extended until April which is going to do very little for the significant unemployment figures."

The Black Sash said that it would continue to talk to government.