Cape Town - Members of the Western Cape Legislature are concerned by reports that the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) lacks a special plan to cater for the elderly during the harsh winter months, especially now that the third wave of Covid-19 infections has arrived.
Social development standing committee chairperson Gillion Bosman (DA) brought the matter up in the legislature with Social Development MEC Sharna Fernandez when he followed up with her about whether there had been any communication from Sassa outlining a clear winter readiness plan.
Fernandez said Sassa had done nothing yet but that her department was working to ensure that winter readiness programmes were operational in each region across the province.
“We, however, require the support of other government agencies to help ensure that there are appropriate responses to mitigate the impact of disaster situations on vulnerable communities,” said Fernandez.
“The department’s major preparations entail the provision of additional bed spaces for homeless adults, social work services aimed at family reunification, and social relief of distress.”
Bosman said he had written to Sassa asking it the same question and had heard from the acting regional head of Sassa that the organisation did not have a winter readiness programme in place, and had never had one.
Sassa said it did not have the capacity to run such a plan but relied on the City’s overall winter preparedness programmes.
Sassa and the City have a service level agreement to provide humanitarian aid to residents in distress and discomfort as a result of flooding and storm damage.
Peter Marais FF+ told Fernandez that when he served as the provincial social services MEC, the province paid its own grants to citizens and wanted to know when and why the system had changed.
Fernandez said there was dysfunction in the system, but that her department would continue to hold Sassa accountable in an effort to improve the status of the province’s elderly.
Black Sash national advocacy manager Hoodah Abrahams-Fayker said large crowded queues outside Sassa offices were a risk for vulnerable grant recipients.
“Given that it is winter and that the country is already in the midst of a devastating Covid-19 third wave, Sassa must have measures in place to ensure that social grant recipients are speedily attended to at Sassa offices to avoid congestion.
“Appropriate measures will help to ensure that social grant recipients are not forced to sleep outside Sassa offices in the desperate hope of getting to the front of the queues in order to be assisted.”
Black Sash meanwhile reiterated their demand that the Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant must be reinstated and increased to at least the Food Poverty Line, currently R585.
Abrahams-Fayke said the third Covid-19 wave would have a negative effect on livelihoods, jobs and sources of income in the context of an already alarming unemployment rate and that the government had a constitutional obligation to provide social assistance.
“The Covid-19 SRD grant must be expanded to include unemployed women, who receive the Child Support Grant on behalf of children,” said Abrahams-Fayker.