Planned public hearings into the Department of Welfare’s re-registration drive for grant beneficiaries have been called off. Peter Dickson reports
Human rights campaigners in the Eastern Cape are up in arms over a decision by two provincial legislature committees on Tuesday to deny the disabled a voice by calling off planned public hearings into the Department of Welfare’s controversial third re-registration drive, which started in five pilot areas this week.
The Freedom of Expression Institute says the decision by Bisho’s welfare standing committee and the public participation and petitions standing committee has decreased transparency, while a “disappointed” Human Rights Commission (HRC) says it has robbed people of a platform to express their views on a process that has already hurt many.
As the re-registration drive got under way on Monday, a leading Eastern Cape campaigner for the disabled, Karin Claydon, who blames poor administration and communication by the department as well as a flawed government policy for causing the welfare crisis, said: “These people are starving to death – they don’t want another academic policy.”
On Tuesday, Bisho welfare standing committee chair Mike Basopu said that in the light of the start of the re- registration drive, public hearings into the matter would only “confuse people”.
Since the department was informing people about re-registration, there was no need for a public hearing. Infuriating Claydon, who earlier this year was asked by Eastern Cape MEC for Welfare Ncumisa Kondlo to help draw up payment guidelines for the disabled, Basopu said “incorrect recommendations” by the public participation and petitions committee after a request by Claydon had initially led the speaker to agree to the hearings.
The HRC’s Frankie Jenkins says the number of people “grovelling” for grants proves serious issues need to be addressed and that the department has to answer for the “atrocious welfare record of the Eastern Cape” and justify re- registration.
Jenkins says: “The government and the Eastern Cape legislature is answerable to the public, that’s how democracy works.
“Just by looking at the human side of the situation, not even considering corruption, there is enough evidence for an investigation. The right to life is the sanctity of the Constitution.”
Kondlo has angered beneficiaries with her own justification for the re- registration process – that 100 000 people, at an annual cost of R360- million, are allegedly receiving grants illegally.
Once again, as in re-registration drives over the last two years, Bisho is crying government corruption to whittle down the number of beneficiaries, they say.
Beneficiaries argue that if Kondlo knows this figure, there is no need for a costly and time-consuming re-registration process. Kondlo’s department has also reported that of the 100 000, a specific number have died, 985 are civil servants who illegally drew a pension each month on top of their salaries, and these employees totalled eight in its own department, 176 in health, 346 in education and 115 in public works.
This suggests the department knows exactly who is involved. The department says these illegal payments have been stopped and that it has “started” the process of recovery.
The 985 fraud artists, however, have not been disciplined or charged, despite Kondlo saying last week that such people stealing public funds earmarked for the aged, disabled, indigent and children would face “zero tolerance”.
For grant beneficiaries in the Eastern Cape, however, for the second year in a row, Christmas looks set to bring cold comfort.