Read more
Will child support grant be extended to those 18 and still in school? Nope says minister
WATCH: Crowd storms Sassa paypoint in KZN, with not a ‘social distance’ in sight
Sassa paypoints across the country are being stretched thin as snaking crowds of pensioners and shoppers line empty streets.
Pensioners and shoppers crowd a mall to collect Sassa grants and do essential shopping. File image for illustration: Twitter/@SayEntrepreneur
In light of the 21-day lockdown, social security agency Sassa announced last Monday that grants for the elderly and those with disabilities would be paid out on 30 and 31 March, slightly earlier than usual.
However, the process of allocating grants only to the most vulnerable was not as easy as it was made out to be by Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu, Sassa CEO Totsie Memela, acting MEC Panyaza Lesufi, and Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams.
A nine-second clip, reportedly CCTV footage from Mega Philani Mall in Umazi, Durban south, depicts the chaos currently reigning across some Sassa waypoints.
It shows a massive crowd rushing towards the paypoint, and not all citizens in the video were old or disabled.
CCTV footage of a mass of people rushing to Mega Philani Mall in Umlazi, south of Durban, to get to a SASSA pay point to collect their grants. @TimesLIVE pic.twitter.com/b7a8X7rEGX
— Orrin Singh (@orrin417) March 30, 2020
By 9.30am on Monday morning, Sassa said about R1 million in grants had already been paid at Post Offices, ATMs and retail stores across the country.
Dawn in Mthatha. Thousands queuing to collect their SASSA grants. Some came as early as 01h00. #sabcnews @MbulaliKillaman pic.twitter.com/HW13trzNpr
— Jurie Blignaut (@kluisenaar) March 30, 2020
Public transport protocols were relaxed to accommodate beneficiaries, and are allowed to operate from 5am to 9am, and again from 4pm to 8pm, on Monday and Tuesday.
But this message may not have filtered through to all drivers, with eNCA reporting that some beneficiaries were not able to collect their payouts due to a lack of public transport. Others have been stranded, with no way to get home.
In Tembisa, pensioners were seen stuck in long queues, some arriving as early as 5am.
Another Sassa paypoint in Cape Town reportedly ran out of cash, and had to send beneficiaries home to return on Tuesday.
In Port Shepstone, however, paypoint processes seemed to be running smoothly.
For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.
