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1. This may surprise you. But the person who changed my mind on Free ShS was @JusticeSremSai 2. I have always supported the policy. But I had great misgivings about its long term viability. Like the rest of the neoliberals I was arguing that the lack of means testing of recipients meant that the policy was an albatross that needed to be dispensed with, if not expectations would set in, and we can never take it away again. That’s a great risk. I gave National service as an example. 3. Justice did not argue that Free ShS was not too expensive. He admitted it. But He asked me a genuine question. When you look at the amount of money this country loses through corruption. Money that goes to the elites, what at all do working class and poor people get from the State? 4. Yes the policy isn’t perfect in its targeting. But when has government ever been efficient? For many poor people, this may the only value the get from a Republic that hardly ever prioritises them, he said. 5. So yes, let them run it as it is. And when they come to realize it’s impractical, they will review and fine tune it, as we go along, he continued. 6. He may not remember that conversation today, but I never forgot it. I realized then I was gate keeping; at the expense of the poor. 7. Free ShS, free TVeT education has come to stay and it must stay. I believe in that. If Justice’s view is anything to go by, then he was ahead of the curve. 8. Review Free ShS, because if we claim, we can develop and deploy traceability tests for gold, surely we can figure out how we means test Free ShS too. 9. We on the left sometimes get suck into arguing against pro-poor policies on cost basis. In doing so we argue unwittingly against the poor. 10. When we steal from the state, do we ever pause and wonder if our theft isn’t too expensive for a poor country? We steal without conscience. Then we want the poor to shrink their expectations of the State and carry its austerity lashes. No! 11. The last government stole more than the total cost of Free ShS. 12. Recover that money! Protect Free SHS. Shalom