OPINION: Elderly suffer at the hands of SASSA following grant payment errors!

The Department of Social Development has a long history of being led by arrogant and unsympathetic leaders since the days of former minister, Bathabile Dlamini. Our current minister, Lindiwe Zulu, is no different. Since the announcement of the State of National Disaster in March 2020, she was exposed on a social media video stating that she is out and about and moving around in public carelessly.

Last month’s grant payment was marked by the death of a pensioner, very long queues, ATMs and pay-points running out of money. This month’s grant payment was even a worse nightmare for the old and disabled citizens, characterized by very long queues, pay points running out of money, double payments to some beneficiaries and no payment for thousands of pensioners.

These inherent problems create huge complications for the poorest people in KwaZulu-Natal, in areas like Isiphingo  where most beneficiaries travel from early hours of the morning to get to the pay-points. They are sickly with underlying illnesses such as diabetes, cancer, pneumonia, TB and high blood pressure. Being hungry and tired, they stand in the queues for hours and some having spent a night there hoping to be paid a government grant which will sustain them for a few weeks if they are lucky. Unfortunately, the broken system and incompetence which is the hallmark of  Social Development had the upper-hand.  The beneficiary who waited in the queues patiently were told the system was down or the money had run out and that they must come back the next day. With tears in the eyes of the poor, they had to return home with no money, no food and no taxi fare for the next day.

People from the rural areas travel a long distance to get to town and to the shops, didn’t even had the taxi fare to go back and had to spend the night in the street again without food, with the cold at night in this season they had to sleep next to each other under shops verandas to keep warm, which exposed them more to be infected by the corona virus.

Minister Lindiwe Zulu had a month to sort out last month’s problems but her department created another mess. Our people deserve better. Our people should get excellent service every time. This is non negotiable especially the old age and the differently abled as they are highly vulnerable. Our people should not be treated like voting fodder but must be treated like first class citizens.

The Covid 19 Stress relief unemployment grant application process is also faced with so many problems that our people are losing hope of ever getting the R350 that was promised to them by our president. The minister should be reprimanded.