Social grant beneficiaries will be paid
SOUTH AFRICA’S 17 million social grant beneficiaries, including 2.7-million people in the Eastern Cape, will get their money on April 1.
This assurance was given by the chairwoman of the portfolio committee for social development in parliament, Zoleka Capa.
Her comments come after Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini on Monday announced a twoyear extension deal with Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) despite a Constitutional Court ruling which found that the contract was invalid.
However, uncertainty continues to surface.
In a telephonic interview with the Daily Dispatch yesterday, Capa, a former Eastern Cape district mayor and agriculture MEC, apologised for the situation.
“We apologise profusely that there is confusion. I want to assure you Daily Dispatch, and the people, that they will be paid out come April 1.”
The only uncertainty was which company would do the payments on behalf of the department, as it did not have capacity to do this on its own.
“People are being misled by opposition parties. In parliamentary oversight committees we get the actual truth. Whoever is saying social grants are not going to get paid is not telling the truth. The money is available.”
According to yesterday’s Dispatch report, children could go hungry while old people could find themselves struggling if they do not get their grants at the end of this month.
The Eastern Cape has the most number of foster children in South Africa with about 102 966, which makes up 24% of the national total of foster grants.
Yesterday Petros Majola, the director of the Khula Community Development Project, a child rights nongovernmental organisation, said they were concerned with the uncertainty over the payment of social grants as it could have far reaching consequences for many children in the province.
“There are many children who do not have scholar transport and have to use grant monies to hire bakkies to take them to school. We will have a crisis on our hands as many will miss school,” he said. —