Chaos erupts at Sassa offices
Angry moms filled Sassa offices in Pinetown after not receiving the grant money
ANGRY mothers filled the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) offices in Pinetown and demanded their grants money at after their children’s grants were not paid into their cards.
Some of the mothers said they received half the amount they are suppose to get monthly. One mother said she had been trying to get the money since last Friday.
“I was told that I had only seven cents in my card. Even now I do not know how I am going to get back home because I don’t have money for a taxi.
Children needs to go to school and they need to eat. I use the grant money to buy them food as I am not working, now they have to go to school on an empty stomach,” she said
The mothers said that they have been told to register again because the machines cannot recognise their fingerprints.
“How is it possible that suddenly these machines do not recognise our fingerprints after we have been receiving the grant money without any hassles?
These are new cards were issued last year November. We can not start over again with the process of re-registering as it can take even a week to complete it. Where are we going to get the money to come here everyday?” said an irate mother.
Sassa spokesman Vusi Mahaye said people who did not get their money have not completed the re-registration process.
“We opened a re-registration for the June and September holidays so that mothers could bring their children to re-register. After people did not pitch we decided to freeze their grants money as we have had many incidents of corruption, people getting grants for non-existent children,” he said.
It was not only the mothers who had this problem. Some pensioners also did not get their money.
“These new cards work like any bank cards. If you borrow money it will be deducted from your account so the people who said they did not get the full amount should check with places they have borrowed money from. With regard to rumours that we are offering personal loans, that is not true. We are a government institution and we are not allowed to give out personal loans,” said Mahaye.
I called SASSA as my mother did not receive her pension for two months. She was receiving it through her ABSA bank account though, until recently for two months it was stopped and she has not received it. I was informed to have it changed to a SASSA Card. I put in a day’s leave as I informed to bring her in as SASSA don’t have the staff to make these visits to those who cannot come to the office due to their disability, as my mother happens to be in frail care. Personally SASSA should have staff to visit and check so that they can see for themselves that these old people are still around and living at these old age homes. Nevertheless, I took the day off and am taking her in to show that she is alive. This morning I called and spoke to the CUSTOMER CARE person, in Modderbee. Please replace this person as he is illiterate, cannot speak properly over the telephone, (sounded babalas!!), was not helpful as he didn’t know what documents I needed to bring along to resolve this matter? Really your offices needs to be upgraded by getting the proper “trained” personnel to represent your image. Stamp out all corruption, bribery, laziness of staff, slow-working staff etc. Another issue, they don’t answer their phones….the phones rings for a while and then suddenly the music comes on… as I experienced it. Thank you