Former public protector calls for the extension of Covid-19 grants

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Thuli Madonsela has urged the government not to stop Covid-19 social relief grants.

In an interview with eNCA on Wednesday, former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela advised the South African government not to stop Covid-19 relief grants.

Madonsela explained that we cannot drop the grants for two reasons: “People are still starving and more people are going to starve because our economy is on the mend but it's going to take a while,” she said. “Secondly, a lot of people who are starving now had jobs and were prepared to work hard, but the lockdown, which was meant to save us all, hit them harder than the rest of us.”

“I do hope that the president will understand that if we do not do this, it will be to our own peril because in Zulu we say hunger causes anger and we do not want our people hungry and angry,” she said.

About six million recipients still haven’t received their R350 Covid-19 relief grants for March. The grant was extended to April following an announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

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