AMANDLA.mobi takes the fight back to the departments this week.
The community organisation will picket out the offices of South African Social Security Agency, Department of Social Development and Treasury on Thursday 17 and Friday, 18 October 2024, to highlight the out-of-control SRD grant issues.
They plan to put pressure on Minister Sisisi Tolashe and Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana to urgently attend to this matter and increase the grant.
In their four-year fight for the R370 SRD grant, the organisation ran an R370 SRD grant survey to understand how the grant issues have intensified since 2021.
Among the 500 people who took the survey, over half highlighted having been unfairly declined for the grant and unsuccessful appeals. Of those who have been approved to receive the SRD grant, 31% say they were never paid.
More recently, Sassa introduced a new biometric system that has caused even more problems for recipients [1]. Over 400 people said they have been affected by the biometric system, while others said they were unaware of the new system.
Furthermore, half of the people who took the survey said they feel Sassa’s services has worsened over the last 12 months.
One R370 grant beneficiary said: “I think Sassa is getting worse. They would decline payments because they feel there’s a ‘means of income’, but how can that be true with an empty bank account? I think it is very wrong to do that to the poor; R370 is not even enough to buy your monthly necessities.”
Recently, Sassa was reported to have underspent R4 billion on SRD grants [2]. In 2023, DSD returned R15 billion, which was meant for grants, to National Treasury [3].
“It is unacceptable that people continue to suffer because Sassa and DSD fail to manage their budgets. The new DSD minister has failed to detail a plan to fix the grant, even after trying to contact her multiple times. We are forced to take action because Minister Tolashe has chosen to ignore the concerns of grant recipients in her first 100 days in office,” says Tlou Seopa, amandla.mobi Senior Campaigner.
The organisation is encouraged that other organisations and movements are also taking action, with IEJ and #PayTheGrants taking Sassa, DSD and Treasury to court over SRD unfair and exclusionary regulations on 29th and 30th of October.
The pickets are planned as follows:
Thursday 17 October
10 am to 12 pm – Sassa Head Office, Pretoria
1 pm to 4 pm – Department of Social Development, Pretoria
Friday 18 October
9 am to 12 pm – National Treasury, Pretoria
Image (Under pressure. Minister of Social Department Sisisi Tolashe).
