No excuse for ongoing Sassa payment delays

HOW OFTEN is the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) going to apologise to its beneficiaries “for the inconvenience caused by the glitch”?

These inconveniences and glitches are almost a monthly occurrence.

With many of Sassa’s clients being the country’s most destitute and vulnerable, a delay of even a day in payments is not just an inconvenience, it is a disaster of mammoth proportions.

Having got people to switch to receiving their payments via direct deposits into bank accounts, it is incumbent on Sassa to ensure that payments go through efficiently every month.

Pensioners waited in vain at ATMs from 6am on Monday to access their money, only to find out that afternoon that many would not get their funds that day after all.

It is not a simple matter of going home and returning the next day to draw the money – in one pensioner’s case a return trip costs R40.

Out of the total of R1800 usually paid in old-age grants, this is a huge amount and not one many can afford to spend twice.

Black Sash KZN reports that in many cases, pensioners literally at the end of their tethers at month end borrow money to travel to pay sites, only to return home empty-handed.

These are not households where there is a surplus of either money or food at month end; a delay of even a day in being paid means people go hungry.

Just how desperate the recipients’ circumstances are was demonstrated yesterday when it was the turn of child support beneficiaries to collect their grants.

There were scenes of unadulterated joy and celebration on realising that the extra R300 promised by President Cyril Ramaphosa as part of relief measures to mitigate the effect of the lockdown, had indeed been paid.

This week’s Sassa glitches come after Unemployment Insurance Fund beneficiaries protested in Durban after not being paid and then, to add insult to injury, finding out that the UIF office was closed when they went there to make inquiries.

It is understood that this situation is unprecedented in the country’s history, and it is appreciated that the government is doing much to both stem the tide of infection and help those who cannot work.

But we expect better in the execution of such initiatives.