Social grant beneficiaries in Pretoria and Cape City have expressed fears that they received’t be paid in two weeks.
Most of their South African Social Safety Company (Sassa)/Postbank gold playing cards are expiring on the finish of April and delays at submit places of work seem like inflicting panic amongst recipients.
In Ga-Rankuwa, close to Pretoria, recipients instructed GroundUp on Thursday that they’ve been struggling to resume their playing cards after being turned away from submit places of work in Ga-Rankuwa a number of occasions.
Final month Sassa suggested beneficiaries whose playing cards have expired or are expiring quickly, to go to their closest submit workplace to accumulate a brand new card. Nonetheless, not all submit places of work are capable of supply card change companies.
On the bottom
After we visited the native Sassa workplace at 1pm, there was a snaking queue, of principally older folks, exterior. We had been instructed folks in Ga-Rankuwa are panicking as a result of the one submit workplace within the space doesn’t have enough new playing cards.
Lebohang Makola from Zone 1 mentioned she arrived on the workplace at 7:00am on Thursday, however nonetheless had not been assisted by 13:30pm.
“That is my second time right here. Yesterday I arrived round 6:10am. By lunchtime they turned us all away as a result of they mentioned they don’t have sufficient playing cards. I’m so nervous that I received’t get my youngsters’s grant on the finish of the month if my card just isn’t renewed. That is so dangerous,” Makola mentioned.
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Incapacity grant recipient Karabo Ralikutu, of Mabopane, mentioned she was additionally turned away on Wednesday.
“I spent R90 coming right here, which I borrowed from a mortgage shark in our space. I used to be supposed to gather my medicine at hospital, however I couldn’t as a result of I want to repair this. I had borrowed cash once more at the moment as a result of there is no such thing as a Sassa department in Mabopane,” she mentioned.
“I survive on this grant, so the considered being unable to get it is vitally miserable. I’m risking my life being right here as I undergo from seizures,” mentioned Ralikutu.
A submit workplace worker in Ga-Rankuwa, who requested to not be named, instructed GroundUp that workers are additionally pissed off that they’re operating out of playing cards and have to show scores of individuals away every day.
“It’s been greater than two weeks now. We don’t know once we may have them. Now we have suggested folks to go to the submit workplace in Klipgat [over 17 kms away]. Apart from the playing cards, we’re all the time battling with loadshedding at this department and might’t serve folks correctly,” she mentioned.
Sassa beneficiaries wait in line exterior its workplace in Bellville on Thursday after widespread studies of issues with fingerprint identification. Picture: Vincent Lali, GroundUp.
Fingerprint hassle
In the meantime, in Cape City beneficiaries in Bellville and Brackenfell say submit places of work have apparently not been capable of seize their fingerprints. This is among the necessities when being issued with a brand new Sassa/Postbank card.
Incapacity grant recipient Karen Pekeur from Scottsdene mentioned she went to the Brackenfell Put up Workplace as a result of her present card expires subsequent week.
“However I can’t get it as a result of the system can’t choose up my fingerprints,” Pekeur mentioned.
She was considered one of about 100 individuals who visited the department as a result of they want new playing cards however officers solely gave tickets to 50, saying they may solely help a restricted variety of folks, Pekeur mentioned.
Shaheema Matjiet, who lives along with her husband and 4 youngsters in Delft, braved the chilly and moist circumstances with different beneficiaries exterior the Sassa workplace in Bellville. She mentioned workers on the submit workplace in Parow instructed her the system couldn’t choose up her fingerprints and subsequently couldn’t difficulty her with a brand new card.
“Officers instructed me to get a brand new card now, in any other case I received’t be capable of get my youngsters’ grant,” she mentioned.
Matjiet, who works as a furnishings maker in Kensington, mentioned she spent R150 to journey to Sassa in Bellville and to the Parow Put up Workplace after which again residence.
“I borrow cash from neighbours who make me use my youngsters’s grant to pay them again with curiosity,” mentioned Matjiet.
“The cash I earn as a part-time furnishings maker is simply too little to help my youngsters, so I desperately want the brand new card,” she mentioned.
Wendy Pekeur, co-founder of Ubuntu Rural Ladies and Youth Motion mentioned: “Individuals wait in lengthy traces from early within the morning. Yesterday folks had no entry to water and bathrooms whereas they waited to be assisted. Strains are lengthy as a result of folks flock to the Brackenfell Put up Workplace as a result of different close by submit places of work have closed.”
Sassa announcement anticipated
Sassa spokesperson Paseka Letsatsi mentioned: “Sassa is conscious of the challenges that some grants recipients are experiencing after they go to the submit workplace branches to interchange their expiring/expired playing cards as a result of some submit workplace branches being closed and in some there’s a scarcity of playing cards.”
Letsatsi mentioned Postbank is “working tirelessly to hunt various measures”.
“If purchasers really feel that they’re pissed off by the Postbank, they’ve a selection to attend for Postbank to resolve all its issues or can select one other financial institution. Sassa is unable to resolve for any consumer, however the selection is on the market for purchasers to train,” mentioned Letsatsi.
Postbank mentioned that it “is exploring totally different avenues to guarantee that our recipients don’t get inconvenienced. In order quickly as we’ve finalised the whole lot, we’ll make an announcement”.
© 2023 GroundUp. This text was first revealed right here.
