Cape Town – In desperate attempts to try to get grant money yesterday, hundreds of Khayelitsha beneficiaries queued in SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) lines from as early as 10pm on Sunday.
They slept outside the Sassa and Home Affairs offices at the Khayelitsha Mall. Among those who slept in the cold were new mothers and pensioners who required assistance with social grants and registering their babies.
Mandela Park resident Nomampondomise Tsobho said she was in the queue from 1.30am yesterday but by noon had still not been helped.
She said she was tired, and all she wanted was her pension money.
“I have been here since the early hours of the morning, I am sleepy. The officials only come out to take 10 people at a time. We have to wait a long while until the next 10 people are taken in,” she said.
Sassa spokesperson Shivani Wahab said there was an influx of clients at some local offices yesterday due to the fact that Sassa had been inundated with queries from the public on the application process, and the application channels for the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) Covid-19 grant.
“Clients who slept over outside the Khayelitsha local office were all assisted and provided with appointments for Friday. These clients were advised on the perils of sleeping over at any contact point for services,” she said.
She advised clients to also make use of Sassa call centres for all social grant-related enquiries and volunteers would be deployed for those who couldn't use technology.
Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu yesterday said they had gazetted new directives that would allow 30% of the Sassa workforce to return to work on a rotational basis to continue to render social services to people.
She said as of yesterday, limited services would be provided by local offices in order to protect the most vulnerable members of society.
“Mondays and Tuesdays will be used to receive applications from older persons. Priority will be given to those citizens who turned 60 just prior to or during the lockdown period, who were unable to complete their applications before services were stopped.
"Wednesdays and Thursdays will be new applications for child support and foster child grants. Again priority will be given to caregivers with new babies, instances where the caregiver has to change or where circumstances have resulted in caregivers having no income to support their children,” she said.
Among criteria to qualify for the SRD was that people must be a South African citizen, permanent resident or a refugee registered with Home Affairs, over the age of 18 and unemployed.
Home Affairs regional manager Yusuf Simons acknowledged the long queues yesterday, saying that it was because most of their offices were closed last week for deep sanitising.
He said that the Khayelitsha office was one of the busiest. A new mother, who didn’t want to be named, said she had been standing in line for hours.
The mother added that her 26-day-old baby didn’t have a birth certificate and she could not apply for a Sassa grant.
“We have been standing here with crying babies, they just came out to ask us questions and nothing happened after,” she said.