By Teboho Moloi
QWAQWA – The South African Communist Party (SACP) in the Thabo Mofutsanyana region has launched the “One Cow, One Family” program, aimed at fighting poverty and empowering local communities, as an alternative to the R370 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant provided by SASSA to individuals with no source of income.
While not entirely opposed to the R370 grant, SACP Deputy Regional Secretary Peter Khumalo emphasized that establishing a trust fund account would have a greater and more sustainable impact.
Khumalo stated that they have compiled a list of indigent families across various municipalities and are ready to distribute cows as part of the “One Cow, One Family” initiative.
The project’s goal is to integrate poor communities into the economic mainstream and empower them to become both producers and consumers by improving their socio-economic conditions.
“Our goal is to empower communities to participate fully in the economy. We’re setting up a transparent trust account to ensure accountability to every participant. This pilot project will tackle poverty head-on, with the distribution of cows reaching every single participant,” said Khumalo.
The party also revealed that the “One Cow, One Family” program will operate on a contributory model, where everyone, including R370 grant beneficiaries, will contribute.
“With regard to the R370 contribution, we will be meeting with beneficiaries to engage with the government about redirecting the funds to the trust account.This would enable those who have contributed to benefit directly from the initiative,” he said.
In the same breath, he added that the project will enable people to own abattoirs in their respective municipalities and sell fresh meat across the country.
