Social Grants Crisis: SASSA Under Fire for Failures in 2024

The office of the Minister of Social Development has been inundated with complaints from SASSA grant beneficiaries in the first weeks of 2024 regarding issues with social grant payments and poor communication.

Payments Failing the Most Vulnerable

Multiple issues have left vulnerable citizens without grant funds they depend on:

• Older persons not receiving full amounts when withdrawing grants from retailers
• Excessive delays in the Old Age Grant application process
• Lack of communication about Social Relief of Distress grants
• Significant delays transferring payments from Post Offices and retailers to bank accounts

In one case a woman updated her details in September 2023 but did not receive payment until January 2024. This is completely unacceptable.

Gross Negligence and Lack of Communication

With over 390,000 grant beneficiaries just in the Western Cape alone, it is appalling that SASSA’s regional office has only a single staff member handling beneficiary complaints. The national agency fails citizens when complaints can only be referred back to the overwhelmed local office.

There are also reports that in January 150,000 SASSA beneficiaries did not receive grant payments owed to them due to incorrect banking details. While SASSA published a statement requesting affected beneficiaries to contact them, they did not adequately communicate this urgent information directly to the public and beneficiaries.

The Minister has repeatedly informed SASSA that transparency and effective communication with beneficiaries is vital when payment issues occur.

Demanding Answers and Accountability

The people of South Africa deserve complete openness and engagement from Minister Lindiwe Zulu and the national department on why SASSA and the administration of social grants continues failing the country’s most vulnerable citizens.

Clear explanations must be provided directly to grant beneficiaries, along with greatly enhanced communication between the national and provincial offices attempting to assist distressed citizens affected by lapses within SASSA processes.

On January 12th SASSA confirmed 18,000 clients were negatively impacted by grant payment issues in the Western Cape just for the month of January 2024. The agency stated that an announcement was published, but it remains unavailable on any of their online platforms.

The South African people deserve accountability and transparency when services meant to help those most in need fail them. Ongoing issues within SASSA and the social grants system must be addressed through open communication and urgent corrective action from both regional and national government offices.