Grant applicants tell of their queue plight
DOZENS of people applying for social welfare grants decided to camp out at the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) offices in Athlone to ensure that they are attended to in the morning.
This after people have been turned away at closing time.
Manenberg resident Nazeemah Palanyandi, 56, said she had been trying to get help from the offices for three weeks.
Palanyandi, who wanted to apply for a child support grant, and about 100 other people started to camp outside Sassa’s office at 11pm on Wednesday. By that time there were other people already in the queue, she said.
“They only helped 110 people. The manager said I was too old to stand there and took my number and said she’d call to arrange for an appointment so that I don’t stand outside. But she didn’t call,” said Palanyandi.
The 56-year-old, who has a heart condition, is one of many senior residents regularly bracing the cold in a similar plight.
“People who get numbers don’t even get help. We were the only two people outside yesterday and they refused to help us and closed the place,” she said.
“It was raining but we were covered. We had blankets and chairs, like camping out.”
Soraya Bowers, 55, from Hanover Park, said: “I had to sit there yesterday to be sure my daughter would be helped in the morning. There were almost 150 people there. Luckily, I was number four and the manager was quite rude this morning (yesterday).”
Ward councillor Aslam Cassiem said he received a message from one of the encamped women yesterday.
“After receiving this first one, I decided to make them a pot of coffee and food. I arrived there an hour later and saw that it was only a portion of the total number.”
Sassa marketing and communications director Shivani Wahab said that since the reopening of Sassa offices on May 11, under level 4 of the lockdown regulations, there had been sleep overs at some of their offices. In line with government’s phased in reopening of the economy, offices operated with one third of the total staff capacity.