SASSA crashes about 10 times per month: DA calls on SAHRC intervention

14 April 2022

Note to Editors: Please find attached soundbite by Bridget Masango MP.

The DA will write to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) to highlight the shocking rate of delivery of social grants.

The Minister for Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu, recently revealed in an answer to a written parliamentary question from the DA, that the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) has experienced 119 incidents of downtime nationally, between May 2021 and March 2022. This means that the SASSA system crashes on average 10 times per month.

The crashes were blamed on loadshedding, electricity failures and network or server malfunctions with incidents lasting between 3-6 hours. Another major cause was the national rollout of the biometric system used to verify transactions.

Another parliamentary question from the DA revealed that over the past two years 51 Post Office pay points have been closed.

SASSA’s constant system crashes combined with continuous closures of various Post Office pay points, severely limits millions of South Africa’s most vulnerable citizens from accessing their social grants. These grants are often their only means of providing for their families, and there needs to be urgent intervention to address the situation.

The Department of Social Development is continuously failing and violating their mandate to protect children, the elderly, and persons with disabilities by creating an enabling environment for the provision of a comprehensive, integrated and sustainable social development service.

The SAHRC should urgently intervene by:

Monitoring and reporting on the methods of grant disbursement. The vulnerable apply and receive their grants under humiliating conditions while they stand in hours-long queues in all weather conditions.

Addressing the failure of DSD in effectively disbursing grants as a human rights violation.

It is time the ANC government took their responsibility to protect the vulnerable and not exacerbate their vulnerabilities, seriously. Section 27(1) of the Constitution guarantees that everyone in South Africa has the right to social security. The Department needs to implement measures that effectively address the various problems within the system.

South Africa’s most vulnerable have suffered enough humiliation at the hands of government. It is because of ANC policies that their economic growth and opportunity continues to be severely damaged and that they struggle for survival month after month.

Issued by Bridget Masango, DA Shadow Minister of Social Development, 14 April 2022