Sassa grants payments process faces coronavirus danger

Old-age pensioners, the disabled and sick and mothers from poor communities already struggling to stay afloat financially, could find themselves exposed to the coronavirus in the coming monthly grant payment process.

The Black Sash yesterday slammed the South African Social Security Agency’s Covid-19 containment strategy as “thin on detail and low on protection” for pensioners using pay points to collect their grants.

The agency said to manage numbers at cash pay points, together with the Post Office it would ensure the number of clients serviced at a time did not exceed the restriction of 100 people.

A 75-year-old pensioner from the rural village of Waterval in Mpumalanga said she was baffled how servicing 100 people at a time was possible.

“The hall is always full, with others waiting outside to be let in as space becomes available. I am sure there are more than 1,000 people at a time and mostly it is elderly people.

“How are they going to separate the other hundreds waiting their turn because I am sure most people would still come that day because they desperately need that money,” Sophy Skosana said.

She will continue using the pay point because the nearest bank or shopping mall is in Siyabuswa, about 20km away.

Skosana said she was worried about her safety because many people at her pay point were careless, coughing without closing their mouths or simply spat on the ground and hardly washed their hands.

Skosana added that a workable plan was to give people dates on when they should come to collect.

Dina Mahlangu, 39, collects the child support grant for her three children at a shop in Kwaggafontein, Mpumalanga. She said there were hundreds of people queuing by the time she arrived at 6am.

“I cannot see how they will control those people and where they will keep them once they have grouped them into batches of 100.”

– news@citizen.co.za

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