Sick of Sassa queues? Here are Western Cape’s plans to beat long lines

The Western Cape (WC) government has met with the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) in the province to tackle several issues affecting grant recipients.

Among the issues discussed in the meeting on Tuesday were disaster management for vulnerable residents, queue management, accommodation and communication challenges.

Speaking to The Citizen, Western Cape Minister of Social Development Jaco Londt said Sassa identified long queues as a major issue during their meeting this week.

“Sassa says it is working on this, but it remains a big problem,” said Londt.

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Sassa communication challenges

Londt said government would assist by encouraging the public to use the online system, but only when it can be assured that the system works properly.

‘We have already started calling on younger people, who generally are more tech savvy to assist the elderly to do the online application, and flag should there be problems for us to escalate it,” he said.

The elderly residents often flock to Sassa offices in the province and across the country to have their enquiries heard.

However, the WC government believes that by improving communication on Sassa-related issues this can be reduced.

“We have already started calling on younger people, who generally are more tech-savvy to assist the elderly to do the online application and flag should there be problems for us to escalate it.

“We discussed how we can support Sassa with communicating to their beneficiaries,” he said.

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According to the Member of the Executive Council, the government had invited Sassa to join the next session of the “First Thursdays” initiative where the citizens in the province meet officials to share their concerns and challenges.

“This is so that beneficiaries may be able to ask them questions directly and receive assistance. In this way, we bring services to the people and work together to educate more citizens on Sassa matters,” said Londt.

On an administrative level, Sassa addressed its accommodation challenges saying that it will require further discussions with other role players both nationally and provincially to see where they could assist Sassa to provide office space in areas where it is limited.

Western Cape devastating storms

Western Cape has been hit by several disasters in recent weeks, with storms wreaking havoc across the province leaving many residents vulnerable.

Londt said that discussions are underway to clarify the roles of stakeholders in event of the disasters.

“This has also been raised at a national level and we have arranged for a meeting between Department of Social Development, the City of Cape Town, and Sassa for next week to discuss this and other issues.

“With the ever increasing rate of disasters due to climate change, it is important to streamline the humanitarian response side to disasters,” he said.

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