‘Sassa must give full report on Bellville chaos’

Whoever gave the command in the police to use a water cannon must explain themselves, too.

The S0uth African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has demanded a meeting with the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) to explain themselves following the chaos and use of a water cannon at the agency’s Bellville office.

“They must give me a full report on what happened,” said commissioner Chris Nissen.

He said he had already alerted the department to queues at the Khayelitsha office last winter and Sassa was alerted to the problem with the closed community halls that had been used as Sassa administration points last year.

“It’s completely unacceptable what happened on Friday,” said Nissen.

“They are supposed to be [the] conscience and the heart of the people. At the heart of the matter is the dignity of the poor.”

Nissen said he was expecting to meet the Western Cape’s head of Sassa yesterday afternoon and wanted a full report on Friday’s events.

“And whoever gave the command in the police to use a water cannon must explain themselves, too,” said a livid Nissen.

“It wasn’t riotous. It is no different at Shoprite [which offers a Sassa paypoint service]. People are there [at the Sassa office] because it is their last hope. “They stand in the queues for hours in the sun and the rain.”

Nissen added that at the very least, a queue management protocol should have been in place, with people getting numbers, so that they would not panic about losing their place.

In the meantime, people were already sleeping in a service lane near the office to be ready for when the doors next open, so that they can reapply for a temporary disability grant.

These grants had been automatically extended during the lockdown, but this ended at the end of December.

Applicants are required to go for another medical assessment to establish whether their condition has improved, or if it is the same and they still qualify for the grant.

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Chris Nissen Commissioner at SA Human Rights Commision