Sassa briefs on social grants
MEMBERS of Parliament will urgently meet Social Development Minister Susan Shabangu to resolve delays in social grants payments which have caused frustration to thousands of beneficiaries.
This comes as the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) was criticised by parties and the regional offices in Parliament yesterday over the latest crisis.
But in a frantic teleconference with MPs, Sassa acting chief executive officer Abraham Mahlangu promised they were fixing the system.
“The technical glitch is being attended to and people are getting grants. I want to apologise; this was not taken lightly by us because we don’t undermine the vulnerable,” said Mahlangu.
“We are checking hourly progress and if there is a glitch we won’t hide it away,” he said.
Sassa executive manager for grants Dianne Dunkerley said the system was beginning to stabilise.
She said beneficiaries who did not get their grants yesterday would receive them this week from ATMs, pointof-sale devices and merchants.
She said the problem affected about 700 000 beneficiaries out of 10.8 million people.
Dunkerley said the money was in the system, but there were problems at the SA Post Office. (Sapo)
Chairperson of the portfolio committee on social development Zoleka Capa said the officials in the department should come to the party.
“I urge the office of the minister to prevail on this issue. We will take the matter up with the minister,” said Capa.
Northern Cape and Eastern Cape MECs for Social Development also said they were concerned about the latest crisis and the lack of communication from the national department and Sassa.
Head of the department in KwaZulu-Natal Nokuthula Khanyile said Sassa must not blame Sapo because it was simply a service provider.
“The key issue we are pleading to Sassa about is communication and for Sassa to take into consideration our inputs, because we are in communities and we know what our people need,” said Khanyile.
She said Sassa and Mahlangu knew of the challenges Sapo would face.
Liezl van der Merwe of the IFP and Bridget Masango of the DA said they were concerned about the fact that there appeared to have been no trial runs for the new system.
Van der Merwe said she was also concerned about the strike at Sassa and whether Shabangu would meet with the striking workers.
Capa said they needed to have a meeting to resolve the crisis Sassa was facing. “We felt we needed to listen to the acting CEO on this new marriage between Sassa and Sapo in feeding the poor. What has also prompted us is that the Department of Social Development is actually responsible for protecting the vulnerable, women, the elderly and children,” said Capa.