How will millions of beneficiaries get their grants from ATMs, shops?

The Black Sash has noted Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu’s directive that South African Social Security Agency’s (Sassa) offices, pay points and Post Office branches must remain open for next month’s grant payments.

But, said the organisation, only 5% of grant beneficiaries use pay points and Post Office branches. What is outside Zulu’s scope are 95% of the 12 million grant recipients who collect their grants at ATMs (61%) and retailers (34%).

“Strategies for containing the spread of the virus in these commercial spaces should be communicated timeously. The measures must take into account that there are about 3.6 million elderly beneficiaries and more than one million people on disability grants,” Black Sash national advocacy manager Hoodah Abrahams-Fayker said yesterday.

She lamented that beneficiaries already spent a huge amount of their grants on transportation costs and bank charges to collect, saying no further costs should be incurred when beneficiaries were turned away from commercial spaces due to the prohibition of large gatherings.

Abrahams-Fayker said the Covid-19 pandemic came at a time when the South African economy is in recession and that the Cabinet had indicated that it was finalising interventions to mitigate the economic impact of the disease.

She however said they were concerned that for the poor and many workers, Covid-19 containment measures would translate into further job losses or a reduction of income.

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