SA’s forgotten citizens
POVERTY: THOSE WHO WORKED FOR DEMOCRACY LIVE ON TINY GRANTS
Even with expected increases, payouts don’t keep up with rising food prices.
On a hot summer afternoon in Johannesburg, 70-year-old Roselin Maseko is about to embark on a 4km walk to buy paraffin as her corrugated iron shack is in darkness.
Kliptown in Soweto has been without electricity for two days as the main substation blew up, leaving Maseko and thousands of residents in the informal settlement hamstrung.
Without electricity, Maseko cannot cook for her two unemployed daughters and five grandchildren, all financially dependent on her.
The search for paraffin is not only an inconvenience – her legs are frail – but a strain on her purse as the pensioner is about to shell out R9 for a litre of paraffin, which she had not budgeted for.
She relies on government’s monthly social grant payment to survive – receiving an old-age grant of R1 510 and R1 800 in child support for her five grandchildren (R360 each) to supplement the household income.
Maseko is oblivious to the fact that the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) has yet to seal the deal to allow incumbent Net1 subsidiary Cash Paymaster Services (CPS), or another player, to carry on making payments to 17 million beneficiaries come April 1. Government officials still cannot explain how grants will be distributed.
“If we don’t get our grant, we would be deep in poverty. It would be like the old days of apartheid, when the government would skip grant payments for many months. Life in Kliptown is already bad,” says Maseko, a former domestic worker who retired in 2008. Kliptown is one of Soweto’s oldest townships and played a role in South Africa’s transition into democracy, as the Freedom Charter was signed in the area in 1955.
What stands today are dilapidated and abandoned buildings reminiscent of a once-thriving retail district. With a population of 7 458, Kliptown’s unemployment rate is more than 60% (as claimed by residents). Most senior citizens are retired, while youngsters loiter or are in search of menial work.
Using Statistics SA and Sassa data, research firm Capital Economics estimates that more than 45% of households receive social grants and a disruption in grant payments is expected to reduce consumption by 0.4 percentage points of SA’s gross domestic product per month.
On the other side of Soweto, in Orlando East, sisters Nellie Ngobese, 87, and Agnes Ncongwane, 86, are not concerned about the ongoing Sassa contract negotiations and look forward to social grant increases.
As of April 1, the old age grant will increase by R90 to R1 600 for pensioners over the age of 60 and R1 620 for those over 75; the child
We are constantly put on the side
support grant will rise by R20 to R380; disability and care dependency grants will increase by R90 to R1 600 and the foster care grant will increase by R30 to R920.
“Even with these increases, we don’t believe this grant money is helping us, as it’s too little. The prices of food keep rising,” Ngobese said. Ncongwane agreed, saying their payouts were reduced by unauthorised deductions, estimated at R200 in some cases.
Human rights organisation Black Sash has documented complaints of unauthorised deductions from Sassa for loan repayments, airtime, water and even electricity.
For now, Ncongwane says the most vulnerable citizens are forgotten.
“We are constantly put on the side. Old people are the ones who worked for the country’s democracy. I don’t see a change at all, it’s getting worse in a democracy.”