The ANC claims that it is the only party that can ensure that social grants and the National Student Financial Aid Scheme are not scrapped in future. We checked what opposition parties have promised to do if they were elected into office.

In January, President Cyril Ramaphosa reportedly told an ANC rally in Mpumalanga that only the ANC could be relied on to keep supporting South Africa's poor through social grants and the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).

According to The Citizen, Ramaphosa said there were no guarantees that other South African political parties would continue with these poverty-alleviation programmes if the ANC was voted out of power.

He said: "We do not know if these other organisations will have the determination we have," in terms of uplifting the disadvantaged.

His comments caused outrage from opposition parties. But is there any basis for Ramaphosa's allegations?

As analyst Khaya Sithole has pointed out, all together more than 20 million South Africans, as of 2023, cumulatively relied on the fairly meagre financial support provided by NSFAS via student funding and the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) via social grants. Any new government which suddenly proposed doing away with these financial lifelines would be in for a world of pain in terms of both social unrest and constitutional challenges.

But beyond that: What have opposition parties actually promised when it comes to student funding and social grants?

The DA has...