Peter Dickson
The Eastern Cape government has posted this week as the final deadline for new applications and applications for the reinstatement of welfare grants.
The announcement was made despite an “indefinite” extension in May and the inability of district surgeons to cope with the number of applicants to be re- examined.
The short notice comes a month after the provincial Department of Welfare wrote to Bisho legislators that it was battling to communicate with beneficiaries.
The department admitted to a legislature welfare standing committee meeting on August 5 that the disabled suffered most from the backlog of new applications and the applications for reinstatement by those whose grants were summarily cut off in terms of new government policy.
Last week Eastern Cape MEC for Welfare Ncumisa Kondlo asked activists for the disabled Karin Claydon and Bernard Kwaaiman – who recently chained themselves to East London’s Steve Biko monument to protest against the cut-off – to submit proposals on how to resolve pay-out problems and hasten often slow and uninterested officials.
“Nothing makes sense,” Claydon said this week.
“It seemed like they were actually interested, but I’m still sceptical as maybe they just want to keep me busy and out of the way.”
At the heart of the matter is the availability of funding. The R20-million from the government’s poverty alleviation programme for a national disabled development trust is a drop in the ocean. To get enough money the government has to trim the number of grant beneficiaries, which only serves to increase their hardship.