Discriminatory pension laws that exclude permanent residents may compromise their human rights, reports Marion Edmunds
Permanent residents no longer qualify for state pensions or social assistance grants, following the implementation on March 1 of the Social Assistance Act, drafted and passed by the National Party government.
And the Black Sash says it will take this aspect of the Act to the Human Rights Commission, should the Minister of Welfare, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, fail to change it to accommodate permanent residents.
Sheena Duncan of the Black Sash said a number of permanent residents had approached the Johannesburg Advice Office after March 1, not understanding why they could not get pensions. Duncan said most of these people were from neighbouring states, had lived in South Africa for many years and had struggled for a long time to get permanent resident status. Having got it, they were being told by the government they did not qualify for pensions.
Duncan is particularly worried about permanent residents from neighbouring states who worked on a contract basis in South Africa, for example in the mines or in industry.
“It is discriminatory to exclude them because permanent residents pay tax and contribute fully to South African society, in every way except on the political level,” said Duncan.
The Black Sash has lodged an appeal with the minister of welfare to have the law changed, or to use a legal loophole to bring permanent residents back into the fold.
The department has responded by saying that not even representations by the Black Sash will change its stand on this. It claims to have consulted the Black Sash on the issue, which the Black Sash denies.
While those permanent residents who had been receiving pensions and grants up until March 1 will continue to receive grants, no new permanent residents will qualify.
A department spokesman said it was too expensive to provide for permanent residents and that many of them received pensions from their country of origin and thus the expense was not justified.
The spokesman also said that it had had problems in the past with paying illegal immigrants state pensions by mistake. The Welfare Department, like all other government departments, is having to prune its budget to meet the demands of fiscal discipline imposed by the macro-economic growth plan.
The government is currently extending permanent resident status to an expected million or more illegal immigrants in South Africa from neighbouring states, who will not be eligible for pensions in the future.
They will become a particularly vulnerable group in old age or illness because it is unlikely that they will receive pensions from their countries of origin. Most are unskilled and poor, they are cut off from their extended families and they have probably not made provision for their old age.
“These people will be accommodated by developmental social welfare programmes. Which means that people in need should be cared for in their communities,” the Welfare Department said this week.