Court hears SRD grant ‘not basic human right’

It responded to arguments made by the Institute of Economic Justice(IEJ) over what it believes to be the exclusionary administration of South Africa’s Social Relief of Distress grant. 

The respondents included the Department of Social Development, the South African Social Security and National Treasury. 

The IEJ has taken the government to court over digital exclusion, inaccurate income assessments, and unjust means-tests, which it says have prevented many from accessing the SRD grant.

The grant was initially introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic and was meant to provide relief for millions through a disaster management fund. 

Advocate Gilbert Marcus argued that the SRD grant is not a basic human right that needs urgent realisation, but instead, it is a progressive realisation initiative.

“This is not an instance of a socio-economic right which is immediately realised. The right to education is immediately realised. The right to social security is subject to progressive realisation,” Marcus explained. 

In response to IEJ’s question on the stability of the grant and the skipped payments, Marcus said the Institute of Economic Justice cannot compare the stability of old age, disability, and children's grants to the social relief grant.

He said the eligibility criteria for the grants are different.

“There are eight forms of social assistance: the child grant, the old dependency, etcetera; the Social Relief from Distress grant is one of eight. These classes are not the same, and the needs of these grants are not the same; the eligibility criteria are not the same.

“None of this says any of the Sassa categories are undeserving; that is not my case, but it is an important component because my learned friends [IEJ] go on to say, ‘but you did this and this for this grant but did not do it for the SRD’ and that is wrong at the point of law.”

Marcus said the SRD grant had undergone various improvements since its inception four years ago, including an increase of R20 per month.

“If you look at the SRD in isolation, there has been some progressive realisation in at least respect. I am talking about the progress since 2020. The very fact that the SRD was introduced and was not previously existent is itself an instance of progressive realisation.

“The question of whether the progress of the SRD was enough is a different matter, but the fact of progressive realisation is beyond debate or dispute.”

ALSO READ: