Looming grants crisis will result in disaster

Long lines of people, queueing for their social grants from Sassa, are a common sight on the first of the month in many poor communities in South Africa. Picture: Mxolisi Madela

Long lines of people, queueing for their social grants from Sassa, are a common sight on the first of the month in many poor communities in South Africa. Picture: Mxolisi Madela

Published Mar 7, 2017

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Poverty and unemployment are difficult enough for poor families without the added worry of whether their grant will be paid, writes Riedewhaan Allie.

People from poor communities on the Cape Flats are obviously worried about what they are seeing and hearing on TV about Sassa.

“I could not wait for Wednesday morning - 1 March 2017 - to go draw my pension. With all the news on Sassa and grants not going to be paid, I was so grateful that we received our money today. I am, however, worried about next month,”said Molly, a 70-year-old resident from Hanover Park who drew her grant at Shoprite in Lansdowne.

Her neighbour, aunty Meisie, said: “They give us an increase, then they make us worry about our grants. Our families really depend on these few rands.”

For the past few years Sassa has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Pensioners and grants beneficiaries were complaining that money was being deducted from their grants without their permission or knowledge, for electricity or airtime. Some pensioners were hard-hit when they had to go home with the meagre change left over after the deductions. Minister for Social Development Bathabile Dlamini promised to conduct investigations into the fraudulent transactions and instructed that no further deductions be processed.

People claim these transactions are persisting and, although officials have been caught, the payment system continues to exploit vulnerable families. The minister and Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) are now once again at the centre of a crisis that could be detrimental to millions of social security beneficiaries.

Andile Khumalo, writing in the Business Times (March 5) said Sassa as the custodian of social grants payments, faces a dilemma over how grants will be paid from April 1, 2017. Social security payments are widely considered the government’s most important poverty alleviation strategy. South Africa cannot afford to compromise the only source of income for more than 17million beneficiaries.

Increasing poverty and unemployment are difficult and challenging enough for families in poor communities. According to Stats SA (2015) more than 11million children are beneficiaries of child support grants. A 2015 study conducted by the African Food Security Unit Network at UCT found over a five-year study that more than 12million South Africans go to bed hungry every night. This is against the backdrop that more than 27million South Africans live below the poverty line of about R780 per month.

Ordinary people are not interested in how the tender process unfolded and why the CPS biometric service gave them the edge over the All Pay tender. What is important is that the current budget for social security is R170bn, and the agreement between Sassa and CPS saw them receiving an administration fee of R2bn a year since 2012 (Khumalo, March 5, 2017).

On Friday, the Cape Argus reported that R2K and the Centre for Child Law were disappointed that Sassa’s report to Scopa reflected no clear plan forward when grants are considered a lifeline for millions of South Africa’s youngest citizens.

With a looming crisis around grants, the situation on the ground becomes more tragic when we read that welfare agencies are experiencing similar financial challenges.

When the organisations and NGOs that are working at the coalface in our poorest communities do not have the resources to pay their staff - the very people that have to assist destitute and desperate families, we are definitely heading for a disaster. When welfare organisations, shelters and treatment centres that are responsible for important psycho-social services to individuals and families struggle to make ends meet and cannot afford to pay staff salaries, we are inviting trouble. When social workers don’t get paid they will exit the system and poor communities that require the professional services will be disadvantaged when welfare agencies trim down their services.

The question welfare organisations and social work professionals have to grapple with is whether the current welfare service model remains relevant when government funding only covers 75% of their services as welfare organisations cannot raise the additional funds privately. The reality is that welfare organisations end up paying staff only what they receive as a subsidy. When a national NGO like Child Welfare is up against the wall (Weekend Argus, March 5, 2017), many smaller community-based NGOs simply have to close their doors.

The second issue welfare organisations and charities have to contend with is the fact that their sustainability can no longer be tied to traditional grant and donor agencies. The National Lotteries Distribution Trust Fund is not consistent with its grant-making while, on the local front, the Community Chest, a long-standing supporter and funder of many welfare organisations, changed their funding and grants process which left many organisations out of pocket.

Businesses and corporate funders are also no longer interested in throwing money at organisations who are constantly seeking lifelines. They want to be associated with organisations and programmes that show value for money and the desired impact.

Professor Eric Atmore regularly asks: “why do we want to waste a crisis?” With the looming grants crisis and the serious sustainability challenges of welfare organisations, the Director’s Forum and NGO leaders now need to establish a strategic think tank to craft a new plan to move forward. We cannot afford to do more of the same when poor communities are looking at us for their support and development.

* Riedewhaan Allie is the director of the Foundation for Community Work, PhD Candidate, UWC Early Learning Centre.

** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.

Cape Argus

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