Having restored peace and calm after last week’s events, government must work to restore the peoples’ trust in the following ways:
- Provide IMMEDIATE INCOME SUPPORT through a basic income grant or the COVID-19 social relief of distress grant – While the fiscus remains pressured, the tax-windfall from mining revenue makes income support possible, if only as a temporary measure.
- Ensure that EVERYONE HAS ACCESS TO BASIC SERVICES such as water and sanitation – Metros and local municipalities should respond to last week’s events by making the necessary budget shifts in their August adjustment budgets. Evidence from six metros shows that metros did not allocate more money to informal settlements in 2021/22 than in 2020/21 (See pdf report below)
- GOVERNMENT TO RESPOND when the people try to talk to them – Asivikelane helped informal settlement residents in 6 metros and 2 local municipalities to make submissions on this year’s budgets – but in most cases they got no more than an acknowledgement of receipt.