Isobel Frye, the director of studies at the Poverty and Inequality Institute (a nonprofit research institute based in Johannesburg) pointed to the results of the Namibian basic income pilot project as evidence that a BIG could work in South Africa.
In an editorial in the Sowetan, Frye wrote, “An actual experience of how bold thinking can indeed overcome inequities can be found in the two- year-old basic income grant pilot scheme in a village near Windhoek, Namibia. … The results have been incredible. From a desolate settlement of farm workers unfairly evicted after years of work by surrounding farmers, the village has grown into a community. Malnutrition rates as measured by the clinic have fallen from 42percent of children under 5 – to zero cases. Gardens bloom, children go to school and goats multiply.”
Frye wrote that income security is not only a tool for moving people out of poverty, but argued that it should be the central plank to a life of dignity for which so many fought. Frye criticized the government for a lack of action on poverty, and concluded by asking, “How long are we going to refuse to extend basic income security to South Africans with as much right to a hot meal as you or I?”
Frye’s editorial, “Basic income pilot shows the way…” is online at:
https://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1116620
