SONA 2024 provides a historic opportunity to set our country on a new course

The Institute for Economic Justice and a coalition of partners issued a statement to the President of South Africa ahead of the 2024 State of the Nation Address (Sona), urging the government to align its budget and policy implementation with the needs of marginalised people and to end 'hyper-austerity' measures led by the National Treasury.

• The Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) and its partners argue that the National Treasury has undermined government policy and constitutional rights by pursuing 'hyper-austerity' and making unilateral budget cuts to critical economic and social services, which they claim hampers economic growth and the realisation of socioeconomic rights.
• The statement highlights a decline in funding for the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant, noting that the budget allocation dropped from R44-billion in 2022/23 to R36-billion in 2023/24, and further to R33-billion in the 2023 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement. The authors claim National Treasury pressured the Department of Social Development (DSD) and Sassa to exclude deserving recipients to justify these cuts, leaving fewer than half of working-age people below the food poverty line with access to the grant.
• The authors express concern that social grants have not kept pace with inflation, citing the child support grant's 4.2% increase in April 2023 against food inflation exceeding 14%, which they link to rising child mortality and stunting rates.
• The coalition calls for several specific policy shifts in the 2024 Sona and National Budget, including the phased introduction of a basic income grant by 2025, taxing wealth to raise revenue, treating electricity as a public good requiring increased investment for a just transition, and upgrading rail and ports infrastructure.
• The document notes that while the Presidential Employment Stimulus (PES) created over one million opportunities since 2020, the National Treasury is actively attempting to defund the PES and the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative (PYEI).

APA

organisations, I. F. E. J. A. 1. O. (2024). SONA 2024 provides a historic opportunity to set our country on a new course. Institute for Economic Justice. https://iej.org.za/press-room/in-the-media/https-www-dailymaverick-co-za-article-2024-02-06-sona-2024-provides-a-historic-opportunity-to-set-our-country-on-a-new-course-fbclidiwar2kz2vsc2zrcxt7uepl-qvexh4450qsq_ig6-w4xons2qkuhekcf3-de2w/

Chicago

organisations, Institute for Economic Justice and 15 other. SONA 2024 provides a historic opportunity to set our country on a new course. Institute for Economic Justice, 2024. https://iej.org.za/press-room/in-the-media/https-www-dailymaverick-co-za-article-2024-02-06-sona-2024-provides-a-historic-opportunity-to-set-our-country-on-a-new-course-fbclidiwar2kz2vsc2zrcxt7uepl-qvexh4450qsq_ig6-w4xons2qkuhekcf3-de2w/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=organisations |first1=Institute for Economic Justice and 15 other |title=SONA 2024 provides a historic opportunity to set our country on a new course |publisher=Institute for Economic Justice |date=6 February 2024 |url=https://iej.org.za/press-room/in-the-media/https-www-dailymaverick-co-za-article-2024-02-06-sona-2024-provides-a-historic-opportunity-to-set-our-country-on-a-new-course-fbclidiwar2kz2vsc2zrcxt7uepl-qvexh4450qsq_ig6-w4xons2qkuhekcf3-de2w/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{organisations2024sona, author = {organisations, Institute for Economic Justice and 15 other}, title = {{SONA 2024 provides a historic opportunity to set our country on a new course}}, publisher = {Institute for Economic Justice}, year = {2024}, month = feb, url = {https://iej.org.za/press-room/in-the-media/https-www-dailymaverick-co-za-article-2024-02-06-sona-2024-provides-a-historic-opportunity-to-set-our-country-on-a-new-course-fbclidiwar2kz2vsc2zrcxt7uepl-qvexh4450qsq_ig6-w4xons2qkuhekcf3-de2w/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }