LETTER: A BIG, unnecessary burden

I surely hope attempts at a basic income grant (BIG), as discussed in your editorial, do not proceed much further than President Cyril Ramaphosa’s pipedreams (“Expect a populist state of the nation address”, February 5).

Like most of the ANC’s policies and promises, BIG is unfeasible financially and bureaucratically. It’s also redundant; SA already has a complex web of welfare and grant systems, none of which work that well due to corruption and the incompetence of the regime.

Yet another type of welfare won’t solve poverty in this country; it will simply be another burden on the already crippled fiscus, and further source of pillage for corrupt cadres. Perhaps that is the point.

Rather than trying to establish more handouts, SA should be embracing wealth creation policies. Deregulate businesses to allow more to spring up and grow. Stop unions from crushing industry and preventing them from growing and creating jobs.

We must privatise as much of the public sector’s work as possible. Eskom and Transnet, to name the two biggest offenders, should be unbundled and sold to private investors who will ensure they are run properly.

SA doesn’t need more free cash. It needs a genuinely free market.

Nicholas Woode-Smith
Cape Town

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