SASSA beneficiaries who have still not received their grant money since last year. Photo by Pharie Sefali.
20 February 2014
On January 17, Anthea Qonga was told by South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) officials at the Mitchell’s Plain branch that she cannot receive her grant money because its managers were unavailable to sign the papers.
Previously GroundUp reported that a manager told Qonga that the branch is experiencing a backlog. But provincial communication manager for SASSA Shivani Wahab said that the province is unaware of any backlog in Mitchell’s Plain.
Qonga says she was supposed to receive her money in October 2013. “Every time I visited the offices, they always give me excuses, and tell me that my money is not available, and I should come at the end of the month to check again.”
The last time Qonga visited the offices, she was told that she should return on 4 February, to receive her grant money.
“On 4 February I went to SASSA Mitchell’s Plain, and still they gave me the same response to come back at the end of the month because the money is not yet available”.
“It has been five months now … I am sick. It’s hard to take pills [when] I don’t even have money to buy bread. To go to the SASSA branch every time, it costs, and I can’t keep on borrowing money from my neighbours,” she says.
Vusumzi Gxotha, a grant administrator at the branch, said he is aware that Qonga hasn’t been receiving her grant money. “Her money is too much, and we can’t just release it because we need different managers to sign for it. We are still waiting for the approval from the regional office of SASSA and I do not know how long that will take,” he said.
Puleng Nyalo is facing a similar problem with SASSA Gugulethu Branch, where she did not receive her grant for November, December and January.
“The officials told me to register in January 2014 and they will sort it out …I did register and I came back to their offices in February to see if I will get my three month grant,” said Nyalo.
But she only received her February money, not her grant for the other months
She says she was told there is nothing SASSA can do because they do not know what happened to her previous grant money.
GroundUp phoned the Gugulethu office for comment. A social worker answered the phone saying that the SASSA office phones do not work and it has been that way for some time now.
“If people want to make any enquiries at SASSA they have to come to the SASSA offices,” she said.
Provincial communications for SASSA did not respond to a request for comment.