Granny spends two full days in Sassa queue

“I COULDN’T feel my feet anymore because I only had a blanket and a piece of cardboard to sleep on in the cold,” said a Khayelitsha, Western Cape, grandmother who had slept outside her local Sassa offices since Tuesday to be assisted.

Hundreds of Khayelitsha residents desperately queued for assistance yesterday, with many having slept there the night before to secure a spot.

With the Sassa Eerste River office closed after a staff member tested positive for Covid-19, residents travelled to Khayelitsha to be helped.

The 52-year-old Site B resident said she left home early on Tuesday morning, hoping to be assisted with her grandchild’s social grant.

The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said her grandchildren had to bring her a blanket as she saw that the day was passing by with no hope of her being assisted.

“I was surprised to see the time moving with no one saying anything to us, and we figured we would have to sleep there and be the first ones on Wednesday.

“Little did we know that we would have to sleep there for a second day after people who were left over from the previous week arrived and were put in front (of the line),” she said.

The grandmother said the officials only took 60 people a day and the rest had to go back home and come back again, depending on the services they required.

“I still haven’t been assisted,” she said yesterday.

“I can’t come back tomorrow because they only deal with social grants on Wednesdays and Thursdays. I will have to come back again next week and hopefully be assisted,” she said.

Sassa spokesperson Shivani

Wahab said the Khayelitsha local office had experienced a high influx of clients since operations resumed under level 4 on May 11.

She said in line with the government’s phased re-opening of the economy, Sassa offices across the country currently operated with one third of their total staff capacity.

“Despite introducing measures to restrict a high number of clients accessing Sassa contact points and to restrict overcrowding, the Khayelitsha local office receives approximately 600 applications per day,” she said.

Wahab said a queue management system and an appointment system were in place and all clients at the contact point were duly assisted.

“The Sassa Eerste River office has been temporarily closed in the week for sanitising due to a staff member testing positive for Covid-19.

“This has resulted in some of the Eerste River clients accessing the Sassa Khayelitsha local office for assistance.

“The spatial limitation at the site, coupled with the large volume of applications and operating within the constraints of a pandemic have all impacted negatively on services.”

“Sassa staff work tirelessly, even during such unprecedented times, to render a service to clients,” she said.

Khayelitsha Development Forum (KDF) chairperson Ndithini Tyhido said they were trying to intervene and stop people from sleeping outside.