Late last year the Black Sash hosted a Social Security Seminar entitled ‘Facing a world without full employment: Social assistance for all’.

The Seminar sought to explore the potential benefits of the Basic Income Grant (BIG) in contemporary South Africa, which has one of the highest levels of economic and social inequality in the world. Unemployment is at 37% and the youth are the most affected demographic.

Nine million people are unable to find work, and it is well-known that persistent failure to find employment may result in many people giving up the search for work. Professor Vimal Ranchhod, an economist at UCT, says that “long-term unemployment leads to unfulfilled human potential over a lifetime and can affect people’s sense of self-worth and cause depression.

Poverty rates are higher and this affects individuals, their families and their communities.”

Paper by CPLO