This follows weeks of uncertainty on whether or not pensioners would get their money next month.
Elderly people from Boksburg have voiced their opinions regarding the matter.
A 63-year-old woman from Windmill Park, Martha Mofokeng, who survives on the social grant, said that without her pension grant her family would have struggled to survive.
Mofokeng, who has been getting the social grant for the past two years, said the grant money helps her buy groceries, pay for her policies and improve her home.
The 63-year-old lives with four of her grandchildren whose mothers have died.
Mofokeng has one employed daughter who assists her to provide for the children.
“We depend so much on the grant and not receiving it would have broken my heart,” Mofokeng said.
The concerned elderly woman said she will be happy to receive her grant in April.
The Advertiser also spoke to 75-year-old Sky Street resident Minnie van der Klashorst, who said many people would starve to death if they didn’t receive their social grant money.
“The grant money is not enough but it helps me and my family here and there. I live in a poor community. The majority of all the residents in Sky Street survive on the grant money. Imagine would happen to all of them if they didn’t receive it. On some days I provide food to disadvantaged people from informal settlements, so if I don’t receive the grant money I won’t be able to provide food to the needy,” Klashorst said.
Klashorst said she will only believe it when she receives her money in her hand.
“If the money does come through I will be grateful and will thank the Lord,” she said.
The South African Community Advice Office (ACAOSA) has welcomed the Constitutional Court ruling that enables disbursements of grants on April 1, 2017. But the organisation has reiterated its concerns that grant beneficiaries are not completely protected from unauthorised deductions.
The Constitutional Court instructed the South African State Security Agency (SASSA) and Cash Payment Service (CPS) to pay out grant beneficiaries under a contract of 12 months until another service provider could been identified.
ACAOSA is calling on the Constitutional Court to ensure that its oversight role includes monitoring that payouts are free from unauthorised deductions and that confidential information is kept away from external users not directly related to the monthly payouts.
ACAOSA president Albert Makwela said they remain concerned about the lack of protection from illegal deductions from grantee accounts for unauthorised airtime, insurance money and electricity payments.
“We call on government to ensure that the new contract between SASSA and CPS should protect personal details of the beneficiaries from possible deductions. Community Advice Offices (CAO) have reported various illegal deductions from members of their communities seeking support,” Makwela said.
ACAOSA has therefore support the Black Sash and Freedom Under Law application to ensure that SASSA complies with its constitutional obligations to provide social assistance, under proper lawful manner, and also to protect grant beneficiaries from unlawful deductions of their grants.
The SASSA and CPS contract was declared invalid by the Constitutional Court in 2014. The current CPS contract ends on March 31.
ACAOSA is a national voice organisation of the Community Advice Offices (CAO) Sector. CAOs are independent non-profit organisations that offer free legal and human rights information, advice and services to people who are marginalised through poverty, social circumstances and geographical location.
Elderly Parkrand woman a victim of pension fraud
