43 PERCENT

WHILE 43 percent of the population in the Northern Cape is dependent on grants, more pressure will be placed on funding social grants, due to the recession and spate of job losses, where R4.4 billion has been set aside for beneficiaries for the 2017/18 financial year.

The MEC for Social Development, Gift van Staden, stated during his budget speech that the Province shed 14 000 jobs for the fourth quarter of 2016 and first quarter of 2017.

“More and more people are depending on government for survival. Our efforts are inadequate because of budgetary constraints and the sheer scale of the challenges we face as a Province,” said Van Staden.

He added that the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) would pay out 476 768 social grants during the 2017/18 financial year.

“This translates into an increase of 14 520 compared to the 2016/17 financial year. For this purpose, an amount of R4.4 billion has been set aside, of which R1.6 billion is for old age grants followed by R1.6 billion for child support grants and R 1 billion has been set aside for disability grants.”

Van Staden indicated that Sassa would spend an additional R20 million to supplement the R7.1 million of the Department of Social Development’s allocation for social relief of distress in the form of food parcels, vouchers for school uniform and blankets.

“Access to government services remains a challenge, especially for people in rural areas. Sassa will continue to facilitate access to much needed social grants. We have identified 52 poverty wards for the integrated community registration outreach programme to ensure that all qualifying people access