SRD grant expansion could cost extra R93.5bn annually, Treasury warns
The South African National Treasury is challenging a high court ruling that would force an expansion of the Covid-19 social relief of distress (SRD) grant. Treasury officials argue that the expansion is fiscally unaffordable and was never intended to be a permanent social welfare feature.
Why it matters
The case highlights the tension between judicial mandates for social welfare and the fiscal constraints faced by the South African government.
The National Treasury will tell the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) later in August that any further increase in the Covid-19 social relief of distress (SRD) grant would be unaffordable and that the assistance was never intended to become a permanent feature of South Africa’s social safety net.
The Treasury and its sister department, social development and its entity, the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa), seek to overturn a Pretoria high court decision that ordered the government to remove numerous administrative barriers that locked out about 10-million people from accessing the grant; and to increase its monetary value.
The effect of the high court decision is to expand the grant to 18-million people, from the current 8.3-million people, and hike it from R370 per month to about R450 — R65bn higher than in the 2024/25 financial year.
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