Ten times as many people in South Africa receive grants in 2024 compared with 1996. Almost 30 years ago the largest group of beneficiaries were the elderly; in 2024, it is children.

The gradual rollout of the child support grant from 1998 and the introduction of the temporary Covid-19 SRD grant in 2020 have contributed to the increase in the number of people benefiting from grants rising from 25-million to 28-million.

The government introduced the Covid-19 grant for people between 18 and 60 who required financial support due to government restrictions during the pandemic because they had no work and weren’t benefiting from other grants. This grant’s deadline has been extended to March 2025 and benefits 9-million people. It is considered a test case for the rollout of a basic income grant offering R350 a month – the lowest of the grants. The child support grant and grant-in-aid follow at R530 each.