ANC Secretary-General Mbalula backs basic income for youth without matric — TimesLIVE

African National Congress Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula, during a community meeting in uMshwathi, KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa, called for a basic payment to be provided to young people who left school without a matric certificate. This was reported by TimesLIVE.

Mbalula's remarks came ahead of local elections scheduled for November 4. According to him, young people without a matric certificate should not be left without hope and opportunities to build their own future. He also said that the government was working on training opportunities.

Call to municipalities

The ANC secretary-general called on municipal councillors to help young people gain access to jobs and earning opportunities. He stressed that some employment programmes are already operating and should not be presented as future promises.

Mbalula also asked municipalities to give priority to unemployed people when opportunities arise. In his view, young people should not be excluded from such programmes because they lack work experience.

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Support extended until 2028

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana did not announce a transition to a permanent basic income support programme in the 2026 medium-term budget statement. Instead, South Africa's National Treasury confirmed the extension of the 370-rand social relief of distress grant for another year, until March 2028.

The Treasury also plans to continue connecting recipients of this grant with work, training and entrepreneurial opportunities through the government data-sharing platform MzansiXchange. In the second quarter of 2026, unemployment among South African residents aged 15 to 34 reached 47.4%: the rate increased by 1.5 percentage points over the quarter, while the number of unemployed young people rose by 264,000 to 5 million.

The Treasury also pointed to legal and budgetary risks associated with the programme. If the government's appeal against the High Court ruling on the grant rules is unsuccessful, the pool of people eligible for assistance could expand, while the annual funding requirement could rise from about 36 billion to 74 billion rand.