DA, Sassa meet to resolve issues
THREE months ago, the DA threatened the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) with court action after hundreds of Phoenix residents, treated for chronic conditions and disabilities, had complained that their applications for social grants had been turned down without them being examined by doctors.
Last week, members of Sassa met with DA councillors at the agency’s office in Phoenix to resolve varying issues.
One of the resolutions, said DA councillor George Mari, was that all rejected applications would be re-assessed and an investigation launched into why so many application had been turned down.
“A meeting with the Sassa-appointed doctors will be held next to further discuss the management of the assessment of applicants,” said Mari.
He added that the party was pleased with the agency’s willingness to address its concerns and would not be seeking legal opinion just yet.
“We are pleased that some issues have been resolved, or will at least be investigated in order to resolve them in the near future. We will continue to monitor the progress to ensure positive results.”
Mari said the statistics in respect of the number of rejections and approvals would be provided by Sassa and quarterly meetings with stakeholders would commence later this year.
He told POST that in March, the DA had protested outside the agency’s office over this and other matters and a memorandum had been handed to officials.
“The main issue was the high number of rejections by Sassa doctors. The residents claimed the doctors spent less than three minutes assessing them without examining them and their applications for disability grants and chronic conditions were turned down.
“They also complained that the doctors ignored the recommendations of their peers at clinics and hospital, who have been treating them for years, and the lack of assistance at the Sassa office with the appeals process.”
The communications manager at Sassa in KwaZulu-Natal, Mbizani Mdlalose, said there was a misconception among communities that disability grants were issued for ailments such has high blood pressure.
“Disability grants are given to people who cannot work because of physical body challenges. People suffering from aliments like epilepsy, TB and AIDS will not qualify for disability grants because the medication they take controls the condition, thus enabling them to work,” said Mdlalose.
He said this was possibly the reason why so many people had been turned down by Sassa doctors. Mdlalose advised that those whose applications were rejected could re-apply for internal consideration with Sassa.
“If that fails, the matter can be escalated to a tribunal overseen by the minister.”
The Department of Social Development declined to comment and referred the matter to Sassa.