Mud-slinging fails to benefit SASSA beneficiaries

15 September 2023

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Western Cape has noted the press briefing of the National Departments of Communication and Digital Technologies and Social Development in regard to the challenges in the payments of social grants in the past week.

However, this mud-slinging by the National Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu, and Minister Mondli Gungubele, does nothing to fix the problems of social grant beneficiaries who are expected to carry the burden of payment system failures.

This shortcoming of the Postbank system error prevented the poor and vulnerable, particularly the elderly of our country, from accessing their only source of income. This left families unable to buy necessities such as food or electricity. However, this is nothing new and has been an ongoing issue since last year. The Department of Social Development and the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) are gambling with the livelihoods of social grant beneficiaries and need to maintain the integrity of the payment system.

This is why the DA in the Western Cape last week lodged a complaint against Minister Zulu at the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), for failing to ensure the socio-economic rights of Western Cape SASSA grant beneficiaries, due to the ongoing lack of timely grant payments.

The DA will continue to hold incompetent ANC ministers to account, as we fight for the improvement of the lives of all of our residents. No one deserves to go hungry because the National Government cannot perform simple functions such as getting grants to beneficiaries on time.

Issued by Dan Plato, DA spokesperson on Social Development, 15 September 2023