Halt and review urgently: SASSA's biometric decision onerous
Tuesday, 29 April 2014
The South African Communist Party (SACP) in the Eastern Cape identified the need for an urgent review of the decision by the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) to use biometric system, and will in this regard embark on work within the Party, interacting with higher structures, but as well as within communities where complaints are on a rise.
The biometric system as decided upon by SASSA requires that all beneficiaries who receive social grants through the banks, must take up new Vodacom SIM cards and RICA them - they are also expected to call a certain number given by the officials from SASSA for "voice recognition". This tenderization decision of state delivery is certainly highly problematic and onerous to the needy. Its design will increases the burden on social grants recipients while boosting Vodacom and other companies that have been given a defined monopoly through tenderization.
The biometric system as it stands will impact even worse on the elderly, and further expose the grant beneficiaries to abuse as they are compelled to have a Vodacom number which they do not need and then call another number for "voice recognition".
We are concerned that social grant beneficiaries are expected to complete what is demanded of them by the end of this month, failing which it is said they may not receive their monies for the coming month. If they do not receive their money that would lead to many families being without food as social grants are the only source of household income in many families.
We believe that it is possible to introduce a system that is user friendly to the social grant beneficiaries in general and elderly in particular and protect the state from corrupt elements. It is our firm view, as the South African Communists that people, whether they receive social assistance or not, should be afforded their freedom of choice. They should choose their own cellphone network provider without being forced to use a certain network provider as that not only erodes their freedom of choice but burdens them with more SIM cards unnecessarily.
We are of the firm view that the more the system gets tenderized the more it complicates the lives of the poor and the more state resources are going to private service providers at the greater cost to society.
Until a review is conducted it is extremely important for government to halt the implementation of the biometric system decision in its current form in order to prevent disruption and chaos. Government needs to get to the bottom of this decision by SASSA, for the people to know and understand what motivated it, plunging the lives of the people into a complicated arrangements that will certainly make corporations like Vodacom go to the bank smiling with ease. It is also important to find out if the decision is not motivated by collaboration between private capital and corrupt state officials.
Statement issued by Siyabonga Mdodi, SACP Eastern Cape Provincial Spokesperson, April 29 2014
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