Patience and desperation in the social grant queue

As uncertainty clouds the future payment of social grants, beneficiaries have described the process as a bureaucratic nightmare for not enough money. They have no choice but to endure it.

South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) officials admitted in Parliament on Wednesday that the agency was not ready to take over the grant system on April 1 as it had promised.

As the social development ministry was scolded by opposition MPs, hundreds of grant beneficiaries in Alexandra, Johannesburg, were unfazed by the unexpected delays at the Net1 grant collection point in the township, where queues formed from as early as 5am.

Problems such as unscheduled lunch breaks, an unpredictable computer system, physical fights and the bribing of security guards to jump the queue means that often, when beneficiaries reach the front, they are sent home.

Mbali Bhulawayo, an Alexandra resident with a four-year-old daughter, said the frustration is not worth the R350 a month she receives. Visibly irritated and drained by the heat, Bhulawayo sat on a brick wall at the back of a queue that snaked across a parking lot and lamented the arduous process.

“On top of everything, they will tell us to go home because their lunchtime was long and we have been here since early this morning. I can’t wake up at 6am for three days in a row and not get any assistance,” she said.

At the front of the queue, another child support grant recipient, Sally Nzima, also bemoaned the grant collection delays but said: “I can at least buy powdered milk for my child. It lasts two weeks with this money, so I need it.”

Noluthando Mahlangu echoed these sentiments, but said beneficiaries should be grateful for the little the government is able to do. “R350 can never be enough but we