Promise to introduce a basic income grant is another undignified attempt to secure a few extra votes
26 May 2024 - 15:31
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I see that the ANC has now promised to introduce a basic income grant within two years if it is re-elected.
My goodness. Clearly, President Cyril Ramaphosa knows more about the state of our national finances than every expert economist, accountant, auditor and politician in the country, because the way I have it, we are near broke.
This announcement should be chalked up as exactly what it is: another undignified attempt by a flailing ANC to cobble together a few extra votes before May 29, fully knowing that the project will be dead on arrival.
As with National Health Insurance (NHI) — which is already on life support — this stunt is fooling no-one. The ANC is scraping the election-promise barrel. Over the past three decades, it has promised jobs (we are still waiting), safety (a running joke) and service delivery (frankly, no comment) — and it has failed at each and every one of them.
Now, it is reaching for the stars in a Hail Mary pass, well aware that what it is promising is a factual impossibility.
Shaun Plaatjies Johannesburg
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
LETTER: ANC reaches for election Hail Mary pass
Promise to introduce a basic income grant is another undignified attempt to secure a few extra votes
I see that the ANC has now promised to introduce a basic income grant within two years if it is re-elected.
My goodness. Clearly, President Cyril Ramaphosa knows more about the state of our national finances than every expert economist, accountant, auditor and politician in the country, because the way I have it, we are near broke.
This announcement should be chalked up as exactly what it is: another undignified attempt by a flailing ANC to cobble together a few extra votes before May 29, fully knowing that the project will be dead on arrival.
As with National Health Insurance (NHI) — which is already on life support — this stunt is fooling no-one. The ANC is scraping the election-promise barrel. Over the past three decades, it has promised jobs (we are still waiting), safety (a running joke) and service delivery (frankly, no comment) — and it has failed at each and every one of them.
Now, it is reaching for the stars in a Hail Mary pass, well aware that what it is promising is a factual impossibility.
Shaun Plaatjies
Johannesburg
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
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