Roshila Pillay
Thousands of pensioners have been left penniless in the North West province as the provincial Department of Social Services attempts to weed out a few fraudulent claimants.
“All that we’ve done is ask that pensioners come into the welfare office to be reinstated so that we can update our database,” says Denver van Heerden, director for social security in the province. Van Heerden explains that the present database is overloaded with “dead people” who are still receiving grants and people who earn more than R800 a month and do not qualify for the grant.
However, a journey out to the Odi district in Soshanguve paints a different picture. The Makhuvele family live in an area called Jakkalsdans. Sara Makhuvele (62) proudly displays her children’s drawings, a picture of her former employer’s children and other memorabilia on her wall. Ndebele paintings give the house a cheerful feel while throws that she has painstakingly sewn cover the chairs.
Her husband Daniel Makhuvele (59) looks much older than his years he spent years working as a labourer sifting sand for construction companies and has a permanent cough. After a stroke in 1995 he was forced to retire. His wife last worked in 1973.
“My son and daughter do not have jobs. My son went to my previous employer and they gave us two bags of mealie meal.” Pap and morogo (spinach) has been their staple diet for weeks, ever since Sara went to the bank, only to find out that the couple would not be receiving their pensions until they re-register for them. When she asked social security administrative staff how to register, she was told that she and her husband had to go to a police station in Brits first to obtain an affidavit attesting to their age and employment status one of the requirements for registration. A taxi to Brits and back costs R24 for each person; the Makhuveles could not even consider this option.
Van Heerden says his administrative staff have given the wrong information and that pensioners may obtain an affidavit from any police station.
A lack of internal communication seems to be bedevilling the re-registration process. Social security department employees say the pensions have been indefinitely suspended. “We did not even know the pensioners had to re-register. They [the provincial office] only informed us when we contacted them to find out why the pensioners are not getting their money,” says Lebo Sefudi, a social security administration clerk at the Brits office.
Although Van Heerden insists that pensioners will receive their money as soon as they have registered, the reality is that the process is tedious.
“Once a person completes the necessary documentation he will receive his pension the following month. Pensions are suspended until registration,” says Madlenkosi Mayisela, the MEC for Social Services, Arts and Culture for the province.
The registration process was started to “cleanse the system to avoid fraud and to protect the taxpayer”. Mayisela concedes, however, that due to the lengthy process, people are left penniless for periods as long as four months. “We are trying to speed up the process so that people are not left suffering without money,” he says.
When the majority of pensioners failed to meet the September 2000 re-registration deadline for those receiving their pension from banks and post offices, the deadline was extended to the end of May this year. However, the inefficient system means many pensioners spend a month or more after registering without receiving any money. Pensioners are notified in writing even though many are illiterate. One health worker tells of first-time pensioners who applied for their pensions last year and have not seen a cent up to now.
“Doctors in the area normally send staff members to assist the pensioners. The problem here is that the procedure is correct but the pensioners have been given too short notice,” says Bethuel Mtshali, an adviser at the Legal Resources Centre.
Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya says it was unfortunate that “in the process of fighting corruption and fraud, legitimate beneficiaries were also removed from the list. Legitimate beneficiaries must be reinstated as fast as possible and the money due to them be given accordingly.”
Meanwhile the pensioners of Odi and surrounding areas remain victims of the red tape and bureaucracy that govern their lives. While the authorities haggle over details, their administrative inefficiency has left people like the Makhuveles disillusioned about the country they live in. “They have done nothing,” says Sara Makhuvele.