It’s Easter this weekend, and the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) beneficiaries have been informed that they will only have access to their grant monies after the Good Friday and Family Day public holidays.
The payment dates for the April grants by Sassa are as follows:
- Older person’s allowance: Tuesday, 6 April.
- Disability allowance: Wednesday, 7 April.
- Children’s grants allowance: Thursday, 8 April.
- Sassa R350 social grant: Paid only from Thursday, 8 April.
Now this might seem like a cruel April Fool’s joke to some, but sadly it isn’t.
R350 SRD grant
As things stand right now (unless government extends it) the final R350 Social Relief of Distress (SDR) grant will also be paid for the final time at the end of April.
I’ve always maintained that R350 is not a lot of money, but it is enough to make a difference to those in our community who are unemployed and who most desperately need it.
So imagine my anger and disgust when it was recently revealed by Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu that 39 672 government employees were found to have applied for the Covid-19 R350 SRD grant.
All of these government employees received FULL salaries throughout the lockdown.
Many have medical aids and other perks that come with government jobs as well.
Yet nearly 40 000 of them still applied for the R350 grant – clearly thinking nothing of literally taking the bread out of the mouths of people who have no other form of income.
R17.2 million fraud
To add insult to injury, Minister Zulu also revealed that 17 Sassa officials have been prosecuted for their involvement in fraudulent activities over the past 12 months.
The amount that was defrauded from the department from February 2020 to January 2021 came to just over R17 million.
When will Sassa get it right?
Now if we add this to the number of “dead” people who have applied for grants – and the millions of rands that have been stolen by politicians, high-ranking officials and their cronies – is it any wonder that the government cannot pay the R350 grants after the end of April?
Dear Minister Zulu, how hard can it be to run an efficient government department, especially one on which so many people are dependent?
When will Sassa get it right? We are a full year into Covid-19 and we still have our elderly and our ill standing in long queues in the blistering sun and pouring rain.
We still don’t have a decent transport system in place to help those collecting their grants to get to the paypoints, especially in rural areas.
Sadly, many people spend huge amounts of the small grants that they get on transport, just to fetch their money, often having to return in the early hours of the morning – day after day.
There is not enough money to hire more tellers.
There is not enough money to hire more security.
There is not enough money to hire more people to answer the phones and reply to emails.
There is not enough money to make things run more smoothly, and allow our citizens to access their grants with some measure of dignity.
Yet, there is somehow always enough money to be stolen.
Take down the details
As with any transaction, it is vitally important to keep each and every piece of communication between you and Sassa in a safe place.
Take screenshots of the messages they send you on your cellphone and also of your replies, especially if you send them any documentation
Make sure that the date is visible, or make a note of the date of your interaction with them.
Don’t ever give them original documentation. As tiresome as it might be, rather get certified copies and keep the originals safely at home.
Take down the full name and title of everyone that you speak to when dealing with your grant.
That includes the names of the people at the post office. Don’t allow anyone to tell you that you cannot take their details.
Send your screenshots to the phone of someone that you trust as well.
Anything can happen with your phone, and then you have no proof of your interaction with Sassa.
If you can, get a book and write down all your interactions with Sassa.
Make a note of when you called (date and time), how long you were put on hold, and the name of the person you spoke to and what they said (if you are lucky enough to actually get to talk to someone).
If you are not able to write things down, get your child, grandchild, a family member or friend to do it for you.
Also make a note of how much money you spend on airtime, and transport cost to get to paypoints or Sassa offices, as well as how much time you have to spend in a queue.
Hold Sassa, their stakeholders and partners accountable for their service to you.
Sadly, it seems like bungled admin, lack of compassion, corruption, theft and the absence of a workable, streamlined plan to make things better is still going to be the order of the day for a long time to come.
The best defence against all of it is to have all our ducks in a row.
dailyvoice@inl.co.za