DURBAN - INTO the eighth day of applications for the renewal of temporary disability grants, scores of citizens have braved long queues across the country looking to renew them.
Sassa KZN spokesperson Sandy Godlwana said the process is continuing well as the province looks to process the applications of the 4 875 clients whose temporary disability grants lapsed in December.
“We are pushing to ensure we process the applications for new grants as quickly as possible,” said Godlwana.
“It was expected that we would have a large number of clients so Sassa enacted plans to see to it that (there were) 80 people per day at each office. It is worth noting that staff at our offices are operating at 50% capacity as we’ve also been affected by Covid-19. We’ve had cases where staff tested positive.
“Despite this we will not be turning anyone away and have ensured that our offices won’t close due to infection
by having half of our staff working at a time.
“Since we only see 80 people a day, if, for example, a client is number 81 we’ve implemented plans where we take the contact details of the clients next in line so we can continue where we left off the previous day,” Godlwana said.”
DA Shadow minister of social development Bridget Masango has called on Department of Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu to account for the long queues.
Masango said: “The DA reiterates our call for the DSD to urgently increase its efforts to recruit more medical doctors to assess social grant applicants for disability grants and for Sassa to capacitate its offices to assist the poor and vulnerable speedily.
“Furthermore, I challenge Minister Zulu to come out of hiding and appear before Parliament to account for her failures and present a detailed plan on the measures that her department has put in place to address this crisis affecting temporary disability grants recipients.”
Daily News