DA to report SASSA to the Human Rights Commission over inhumane queues outside offices and R350 grant delays
4 June 2020
The Democratic Alliance (DA) will lay a complaint against the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) and its CEO, BusisiweMemela-Khambula, with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) regarding its abhorrent treatment of those in its care, especially the elderly and disabled.
SASSA has been bogged down by ineptitude since its inception and the Covid-19 lockdown period has turned the spotlight on its many failings and seeming unwillingness to take the necessary steps to ensure that its beneficiaries are taken care of.
Since the very start of the lockdown, the DA has called on SASSA to fully capacitate its offices in accordance with Covid-19 health and social distancing protocols to assist grant recipients with payment, complaints, queries, and registrations. This has time and again fallen on deaf ears.
Instead of doing the logical and humane thing to assist vulnerable South Africans, SASSA has decided to reopen offices with only 30% of its staff at work and promised to train volunteers to assist people wanting to apply for the special Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress grant of R350. The Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu, has been saying she wants people to have dignity. There is no dignity in people sleeping outside and waiting forever for the special Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress grant.