Sassa ready to still pay grants at month-end, with measures to limit infection

Minister of Social Development Lindiwe Zulu has said in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak and the subsequent countrywide lockdown announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday night that the services provided by the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) will not be halted and the agency is ready to pay social grants as of 30 March.

Zulu said her department had engaged with retailers and the banking industry to ensure that the grants were paid.

She added that National Treasury was engaged to ensure that the grants were even paid a bit earlier.

The minister said good hygiene practices and social distancing would be enforced at all retailers as a way of curbing the spread of the coronavirus.

Zulu said the ministers of police and defence had also been requested to provide their members ensure that at certain pay points measures and guidelines announced by the president were adhered to.

Zulu said Sassa offices would be closed during the countrywide lockdown and that no new applications would be processed during this period.

The minister of water and sanitation, Lindiwe Sisulu, addressed members of the media after Zulu’s address. Watch it live, courtesy of the SABC:

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