The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the decision by the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) to extend the payment of the special Covid-19 social relief of distress (SRD) grant of R350 by a further 3 months.
The DA called for the extension of the grant ahead of its expiry at the end of January. This is indeed a welcome boost for millions of poor South Africans who have been affected by joblessness as a result of the economic lockdown.
The strict and sometimes irrational Covid-19 lockdown has left a devastating blow to the country’s economy, leaving the most vulnerable people in our society without any means of putting food on the table for their families. As a consequence, most people were forced to be reliant on this meagre grant to meet their most basic needs.
The DA has been calling on the Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu, and the ANC government to find solutions to address some of the challenges faced by poor people in her care during this time.
Instead, SASSA and the Department of Social Development’s (DSD) handling of the SRD grant payment has been so haphazard, to the point that it endangered the survival of many South Africans.
SASSA, in particular, needs to get its house in order by addressing the concerns and complaints around the following challenges:
- Complaints from beneficiaries that they have not received their grants for months on end;
- Poor, and at times a lack of feedback on applications;
- Issues with the online application process;
- The fact that there are only 10 staffers dealing with appeals; and
- Lack of capacity at offices to timeously process applications.
While the extension will be of great relief to poor and vulnerable South Africans, the reality is that the continued challenges that go ahead unresolved will prevent many South Africans from accessing this much-needed relief.