No rest: Despite being a pensioner
As uncertainty clouds the future payment of social grants, beneficiaries have described the process as a bureaucratic nightmare for not enough money. They have no choice but to endure it.
South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) officials admitted in Parliament on Wednesday that the agency was not ready to take over the grant system on April 1 as it had promised.
As the social development ministry was scolded by opposition MPs, hundreds of grant beneficiaries in Alexandra, Johannesburg, were unfazed by the unexpected delays at the Net1 grant collection point in the township, where queues formed from as early as 5am.
Problems such as unscheduled lunch breaks, an unpredictable computer system, physical fights and the bribing of security guards to jump the queue means that often, when beneficiaries reach the front, they are sent home.
Mbali Bhulawayo, an Alexandra resident with a four-year-old daughter, said the frustration is not worth the R350 a month she receives. Visibly irritated and drained by the heat, Bhulawayo sat on a brick wall at the back of a queue that snaked across a parking lot and lamented the arduous process.
“On top of everything, they will tell us to go home because their lunchtime was long and we have been here since early this morning. I can’t wake up at 6am for three days in a row and not get any assistance,” she said.
At the front of the queue, another child support grant recipient, Sally Nzima, also bemoaned the grant collection delays but said: “I can at least buy powdered milk for my child. It lasts two weeks with this money, so I need it.”
Noluthando Mahlangu echoed these sentiments, but said beneficiaries should be grateful for the little the government is able to do. “R350 can never be enough but we are being gifted the money — what else can we do? We do what we can; it’s that simple. We just have to be thankful,” she said.
Most child support grant beneficiaries say it’s impossible to get by on R350 a month. Pensioners, who receive R1 510 a month, say this is also not enough to put food on the table.
Elderly people make up the majority of people in the queues at the collection point in Alexandra, some of them carrying bags with food and water and with umbrellas to guard against the sun during the long wait.
Samuel Malele has become accustomed to the long wait but was upset that it took so long because he could have used that time to look for other income.
“There’s three of us in the house and only my pension, so it’s not enough. After buying food and cleaning stuff for my children, it’s done,” Malele said, frowning and shaking his head at security guards whose acceptance of bribes contribute to delays at the Sassa office.
The 64-year-old was retrenched from his job at a scaffolding company and said he now looks for odd jobs to get by, or tries to make money from recycling. “I go out to collect bottles or sell scrap. Sometimes I do gardening or paint houses. If I don’t, what will we eat?” he asks.
Disabled beneficiaries are paid the same amount as pensioners and often have additional expenses because they require special assistance to get around. Sipho Nkosi (57) lives alone in a shack and struggles to walk, but most of his money is sent to KwaZulu-Natal, where his extended family relies on him to pay for groceries.
“I send R1 000 today and I’m left with R500. It’s nothing. Most of it is used to feed myself and for transport,” Nkosi said, while resting against a garage door. He explained that he usually buys one bag of mealie meal, two packets of beans, sugar, salt and two packets of chicken with the remaining R500, and depends on support from family members after that.
Maureen Zwane started her own business after struggling to get by on the R890 grant paid to foster parents. “I live with two of my deceased daughter’s kids. I have to pay their school fees and make sure they are fed. If it wasn’t for my baking business, I do not know what I would do,” she said.
Despite their frustrations with the system, all the beneficiaries at the Net1 collection point in Alexandra agree that even one month without a Sassa grant would spell disaster for themselves and their families.
“It’s going to break my life and my family. I’m already poor but I don’t even want to think of what else will go wrong,” Nkosi said.
“If I don’t get it, it will be dangerous because I will be desperate. It will be a tragedy,” Malele added.
Young mothers Nzima and Bhulawayo said they feared for their children’s health if the payments did not come through. Nzima, however, said she would probably make another plan to get money. “It’s only R350 but of course it is food out of my child’s mouth,” she said.
But not all beneficiaries are panicking over the possibility of not receiving their monthly grant. Sindisiwe Ngwenya (28) said the R350 grant from the state only supplements her other income, which exceeds R4 000 on good months and hovers at around R2 500 on bad months. She refused to reveal how she earns the money.
“The R350, I give it straight to the crèche to pay fees for my child every month. That’s all I use it for; the other stuff I can buy myself,” Ngwenya said.