Sassa reaches out to Vosloorus community
South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) invited Vosloorus residents to a community outreach event at the Civic Centre on Wednesday, March 7.
Themba Matlou, Sassa regional executive manager for Gauteng, said the purpose of the day was to bring government services to the people of Vosloorus. “We were assisted by various government departments in doing so,” said Matlou.
These included the departments of Health, Social Development, Home Affairs and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, the National Youth Development Agency, Independent Electoral Commission, EMPD social crime unit, and Road Accident Fund.
Matlou said there are scams targeting those who get money from Sassa. “There are people who are pretending to be Sassa employees who are busy telling people that Sassa is changing cards. They offer to help and demand payment in return. Those people are crooks who want to rob people of their money.
“Sassa services are for free you pay not even a cent for them,” Matlou said. “And I want to ensure the community that Sassa cards are still the same.”
Matlou said at the same time they are educating beneficiaries about the latest developments at Sassa. “Sassa has entered into an agreement with the Post Office. We encourage people to start opening bank accounts. People must come to Sassa to get the PINs so that they can get their money from the ATM of their choice any time they want.”
Matlou said this will reduce queues at pay points.
Matlou also warned the community about unauthorised deductions and money laundering that is targeting beneficiaries.
“We want to educate people about the programmes that Sassa does not approve of, including policies that deduct beneficiaries’ money. They must not deduct more than 10 per cent of a beneficiary’s income. As for money launderers, they use pensioners as their front in running their illegal businesses.”
He warned pensioners to stay away from businesses that Sassa does not approve of. “Firstly they might be running illegal businesses behind closed doors with the aim of cleaning their dirty money. Secondly, Sassa employees are targeted by money launderers.”
On behalf of Sassa, Matlou handed over school uniform to learners, and food parcels to disadvantaged households and beneficiaries aged 95 years and above.
