By: Natasha Archary
Patricia de Lille joins Phemelo Motene on Point of View to unpack the GOOD Party’s recipe for a better South Africa.
On her list of ingredients, de Lille identified the urgent need to give people living below the poverty line back their dignity with a R999 Basic Income Grant (BIG).
De Lille also outlined her party’s stance on the Israel and Palestine situation in GOOD’s manifesto, reiterating the late former President, Nelson Mandela’s words, “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”
R999 Basic Income Grant funded by efficiencies and tax reform
The leader of GOOD, who is also currently serving as Minister of Tourism said the heart of her party’s manifesto is empathy for the poor.
“It’s all about coming up with a recipe to balance society. You know the poor are getting poorer while the rich are getting richer.
The daily problems, the struggles just to survive, there is no way that all of us who are tasting the fruits of our democracy with a roof over our heads, and a meal to eat can ignore the plight of those less fortunate, because then we’ve got no empathy, we’ve got no heart.
You cannot blame the poor for the country’s economic problems. It’s not their fault that South Africa is struggling financially.
Expecting the unemployed people to survive on a R350 grant knowing the cost of living shows a lack of empathy to the plight of the poor.
We’re trying to re-balance society, yes the R350 grant brought some relief during Covid.
However, it’s not sustainable because we looked at the poverty line and established that for a family to live in this country, you need a basic amount of R999.”
Patricia de Lille plans on her party’s plans to introduce a R999 Basic Income Grant
GOOD’s leader said the money to fund the R999 BIG will simply come from having a government that does not steal from its people.
De Lille said it would cost R15 billion per annum to put this grant into place, and she is confident that people will be able to use this money to turn their lives around.
“We tested it out, by taking R50 000 of our own money and giving it to 50 people to see how it would benefit them.
One lady who was given the R1000, used the money to start a sock business, she would sell socks and she doubled the money.
She even came back to me to try to return the R1000 after and I said no, this was for her to empower herself and she did just that.
There are people with skills, trade skills, but they just don’t have the means to start something, and you have to ask yourself if R350 would enable them to do that, and the answer is it won’t.”
GOOD calls for implementation of two-state solution in Gaza
Part of GOOD’s foreign policy positions is its stance in the Israel and Palestine situation, and de Lille says her party’s foreign policy is an extension of its domestic policy.
She calls for reform of the United Nations Security Council and the Bretton Woods Institutions, ie. the IMF and World Bank, to enable more representation and influence to the voices of the Global South, and fairer, more inclusive and less monopolised global financial system.
On the War in Gaza, GOOD calls for an immediate ceasefire and the implementation of the two-state solution.
GOOD is of the view that the root cause of the conflict is the illegal occupation of Palestinian territory by Israel and the denial by Israel of the rights of Palestinian people to self-determination, statehood and sovereignty.
READ: GOOD’s full manifesto below
Also read: DA to launch rescue SA tour
