1.5-million Western Cape SASSA grants beneficiaries face uncertainty

I will be writing to the National Minister of Social Development, Bathabile Dlamini, requesting urgent feedback on the emergency steps her office is taking to ensure the 1.5-million grant recipients in the Western Cape are paid come April 1^st.

This comes after the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) - a national entity - admitted in a SCOPA meeting in Parliament on Tuesday that there is no programme in place to ensure payments occur in April.

SASSA indicated that it would only begin this process as of March 1^st, meaning it is only giving itself 31 days to ensure that the mammoth task of appointing a new grants payment service provider is in place.

This means 17 million social grant recipients nationally, and nearly 1.5 million people in the Western Cape will be left in limbo for 31 days, unsure of whether they will be paid on time.

It is clear that SASSA finds itself in a self-created crisis, for which Minister Dlamini must take full responsibility.

To date, SASSA has kept provincial departments in the dark about this matter, and the MEC has received no communication from the National Ministry either.

SASSA’s failure to appoint a new grants payments service provider - three years after the Constitutional Court invalidated its existing contract with CPS - is gross mismanagement.

Swift action must be taken if we are to avoid a national crisis.