RELIEF AT HAND

Covid-19 has had a massive impact on the livelihoods of many South Africans and the government’s social-relief grant will help the unemployed get the basics. Here’s how you can apply

- DUENNA MAMBANA

WITH jobs disappearing, incomes drying up, and savings quickly being whittled away, millions of desperate South Africans are rely­ing on government’s special Covid­19 R350 grant to help them survive for at least the next few months.

“R350 may not sound like much to some people, but it will make a difference for me,” says Scott Mathebula, who has been jobless for six years.

Scott was retrenched in 2014 and, like many South Africans, he has been struggling to find work.

He returned home to rural Mpumalanga to live with his widowed mother and four siblings as it became impossible for him to survive in Gauteng without a job.

In April, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a R500­billion stimulus plan in an attempt to inject life into the South African economy, which includes the R350 social relief of distress (SRD) grant, which will be distributed for six months.

The grant is intended for unemployed people who are unable to meet their own or their families’ most basic needs.

Scott applied for the grant during a trial application run late in April and hopes to get the money soon.

“It will fill the gaps,” he tells us.

“For someone like me, who lives with their mother and only gets occasional work, that R350 can buy 10kg of flour, 10kg of maize meal, 10kg of rice, five litres of oil, and some vegetables. So, I don’t really pay attention to people and negative comments [about the amount of the grant].

“I think government is trying and I was not going to let this opportunity pass me by.”

Here’s what you need to know about the SRD grant.

WHO CAN APPLY FOR IT?