Cape Town - Next week is the deadline for the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) to clear the temporary disability grants backlog.
Earlier this month Sassa’s general manager, Sibusiso Nhlangothi, said the agency was confident that the 31 458 clients who were waiting to be assessed by doctors would be assisted by March 31.
He said virtual medical assessments were being used to speed up the process.
However, the provincial legislature’s standing committee on social development said that to date there were still many outstanding assessments.
About 53 000 applications had lapsed in the Western Cape alone, and while most offices in the Cape Metro had been flooded with affected clients since January 2021, Athlone, Bellville, Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, Mitchells Plain and Eerste River were regarded as hot spots.
Standing committee chairperson Gillion Bosman said judging from the anecdotal evidence and many conversations that the members of the committee had had with the public, assessments were going slowly.
“Sassa was asked to regularly update the committee, but that has not happened, they only engage with us when we make contact. I have a meeting planned with the acting Western Cape regional manager, but the committee resolved in its February meeting that Sassa should send us bi-weekly updates.
“We have not received these written updates and only saw the presentation they presented to us at the last meeting,” said Bosman. He said the committee was not confident the backlog would be cleared by Wednesday based on the “lack of consequence management and the archaic systems that Sassa has in place”.
“The deadline should be as soon as possible because you have many hungry, destitute and frustrated disability grant applicants waiting. We have always asked if Sassa has run out of money, and if this is what is causing the delay,” said Bosman.
Sassa’s Shivani Wahab said an update with all details will only be issued next week, prior to the deadline.
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