The Multi-Party Charter of South Africa announced on Wednesday its plans to increase the Child Support Grant to the food poverty line and extend the grant to cover pregnant mothers to support child nutrition goals, if it comes into power.

The political parties that make up the Charter presented their plan to build a social relief framework, in which they also committed to an increase in the old age grant, funded by reducing the overall number of people on social grants through a growing economy that would see people into jobs and expand opportunities.

Through a joint press conference, leaders of the Charter parties shared their agreed approach and plans to tackle the biggest crises facing the country.

On Wednesday, the sixth such press conference detailed a Charter government’s plan to build a social relief framework that protected the vulnerable and secured the socioeconomic development needed to break the cycle of poverty, inequality and hunger.

The parties also committed to devising and implementing a plan to reduce teenage and unwanted pregnancies.

The parties said they would identify social welfare beneficiaries by means-testing to ensure that interventions reach those genuinely in need, while also increasing the number of community-based primary health care and social workers to respond to the need for improved welfare services.

The Charter said this would ensure that every community had access to places of safety.

Prioritising the fight against gangsterism and drug abuse, increasing the number of rehabilitation facilities for substance abusers and ensuring that the community had access to the support of social workers, were also some of the plans the Charter had discussed.

The parties highlighted the need to revamp the social housing model to create more housing options near economic centres, while promoting low-cost rental options by initiating a pilot rental voucher system.

The Charter said that it would redistribute State-owned land, particularly in well-located urban areas, to provide housing for people experiencing poverty who would otherwise not be able to afford inner-city housing.

It also highlighted the need to fix the title deed transfer regime and to protect and extend property rights of ownership to as many citizens as possible.

It will ensure that State land is justly and more productively utilised, focusing on residential and agricultural needs, while also increasing access to property ownership and affordable housing.

The Charter will concentrate on repurposing underutilised State-owned land for housing. It will also actively pursue new, innovative housing models, building technologies, funding structures, and community participation initiatives to improve the quality, affordability and flexibility of housing options in South Africa.

The Charter highlighted that while the individual parties within the Charter were campaigning on their own merit, with distinct policies, brands and offerings, voters could confidently cast their vote knowing that these commitments had been agreed to by all the signatory parties to the Multi-Party Charter.

MORE INTERVENTIONS

• Enforcing maintenance payments to ensure fathers take responsibility for their children and to assist single mothers.
• Helping users get off drugs through treatment and harm reduction services (while tackling serious drug-related crime through harsh consequences for dealing and trafficking).
• Developing a national framework on homelessness and improving links with NGOs to ensure adequate support for people experiencing homelessness, including assistance to reintegrate them into their families/communities.
• Increase police visibility in vulnerable communities with high incidences of violent crime.
• Improving education, security and healthcare to enhance social mobility and create equality of opportunity.
• Broadening the range of zero-rated food items to tackle hunger and malnutrition effectively.
• Ensuring that all qualifying households had access to the basket of free basic services.
• Targeting vulnerable groups for protection during food price shocks.
• Increasing support for non-governmental organisations and non-profit organisations that deliver vital services on behalf of the State.
• Allocating a higher number of social workers to densely populated areas based on needs assessments, aiming to increase the social worker-to-population ratio.
• Providing service stands to poor households to ensure access to basic services such as shelter, water, sanitation and energy.
• Ensuring transparency in the awarding of housing development tenders through rigorous evaluation and approval stages.