Disability grants: DA welcomes Parliamentary meeting, demands full transparency from Minister Zulu
19 January 2021
The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the decision by the Chairperson of the Social Development Portfolio Committee, MondliGungubele, to schedule a briefing by the Department of Social Development (DSD) and its entities regarding temporary disability grants. This comes after two requests from the DA for an urgent meeting in light of the confusion around the lapsed grants as well as long queues outside South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) offices.
Last month, SASSA suspended more than 200 000 temporary disability grants and care dependency grants across the country. Due to SASSA and the DSD’s poor planning, thousands of disability grant beneficiaries have had to queue outside of the Agency’s offices for hours, and in some cases overnight, to simply apply for these much-needed grants.
Just yesterday morning we received reports from outside the SASSA Johannesburg Office of long queues and applicants being turned away. (See picture) And on Friday, the nation was horrified by images and videos of the police using water cannons to enforce social distancing measures outside the SASSA Bellville Office. Many of those in the queue were elderly and disabled beneficiaries who had been waiting in the rain for hours. The Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu, then decided to address these applicants from a policeCasspir, once again proving how out of touch she is.
This meeting is therefore critical in not only holding SASSA and the DSD accountable but also Minister Zulu as she is ultimately responsible for this debacle. Her poor leadership is to blame for her department and entities bungling the temporary disability grants and care dependency grants process.