Basic Income Activism in South Africa, 1997–2019

Basic income activists have kept the idea of basic income on the edge of the policy-making agenda in South Africa for more than twenty years, but proposals have not gained significant support within the policy-making and political elite. Nor has the idea served to mobilise popular support. Crucially, both public and elite opinion remains opposed to the extension of social grants to working-age adults. Activists have framed the issue in terms of poverty-reduction, social and economic rights and development, but none of these frames has succeeded in overcoming conservative resistance. Basic income activism in South Africa has remained a largely intellectual project sustained by a small network of individuals without strong organisational or popular bases.