The Western Cape government has issued a statement following a meeting between Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu and Members of Executive Council, over the growing number of complaints targeted against the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa).
It seems evident in the statement by a representative of the provincial government, that they have been left disappointed by the meeting’s outcome.
Expressing grave concern over the many complaints directed at Sassa, the Western Cape government representatives present at the meeting brought the matter up to Minister Zulu.
However, it seems that the meeting did not effect much change in the matter.
Some of the complaints received include the following:
- Citizens are unable to access Sassa in person due to its attempts at working mainly online.
- The online system is said to kick beneficiaries out of the page before they can manage to complete their application.
- Loadshedding and multiple system failures have consistently interfered with beneficiaries’ abilities to have their needs and queries accommodated.
- Long queues at Sassa offices influence delay and waste beneficiaries’ time.
- The Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant processing portal has not been working correctly.
- Beneficiaries have not received their payout for months at a time, only to receive it later in lump sum, which makes it more complicated for them to apply again due to the lump sum payout making their income appear higher.
- Sassa medical doctors have been said to be ineffective.
- Sassa turn-around time for feedback and questions has been quite slow.
Furthermore, despite admitting that Minister Zulu did express that this was an issue that required attention, her proposal to give Sassa “time to prepare to provide feedback at another engagement”, has forced further delays in resolution.
Still, however, they “welcome Minister Zulu’s commitment to a stand-alone engagement with Sassa” but hope to see that it happens with great urgency, so as to not waste more of citizens’ time and cause them further hardship.
