Right to reply
Charles Pillai
In response to the article entitled “We are addressing pension problems” (June 29 to July 5), I believe that it is appropriate that I place certain matters in perspective.
The writer Jack Monedi, head of communications at the Department of Social Services in North West province begins by focusing on disability grants, which in his view lapse automatically when the period of classification expires. The impression created is that this is the only type of grant that his department has stopped.
However, in the body of the article he states that the department has “cleaned up its database and in the process dealt with 38 085 cases over five months”. He then sets out five categories of grant recipients, which includes both pensions and grants, of which only one category relates to “temporary disability grants”. This clearly indicates that the department has used a process that is not rationally connected to the reason for which it was apparently used. In fact the whole process was used for an ulterior purpose and is simply not justifiable, quite apart from its unlawfulness for various other reasons.
In relation to the “temporary disability grants”, what is unconscionable is that the department has not only failed to inform beneficiaries of the status of the grant at the outset, but has quite ruthlessly stopped the grants of people who are clearly permanently disabled.
Let us take the case of Sinah Khoza. It was only after we had sent a written demand to the department setting out the severe nature of her disability and the permanent nature thereof that they decided to reinstate her grant.
Israel Zulu, according to the article, “has been classified as temporarily disabled for 12 months”. According to our information, he has severe arthritis of both hands and has been mentally retarded since childbirth. He is 50 years old. If he has been disabled since birth surely his condition is not “temporary”.
Khazamula Ngolele, according to the article, “has also been classified as temporary”. For the record he is 44 years old and has, according to our information, suffered from severe cerebral palsy since birth. This according to the department is “temporary”.
We have no problems with the department investigating fraudsters on their systems, but there are definitely more acceptable methods of doing so. A blanket stoppage is certainly not the answer.
We became aware of the 790 cases through the department’s own records. To now say, especially in view of the figure of 38 085, that the 790 cases are unknown to the department is fallacious, to say the least. We are now aware through the department’s own admission that it stopped thousands of grants and not only the 790 of which we are aware.
I point out that it is factually incorrect that I had sanctioned the actions of the administration or expressed satisfaction with it or indeed commended the department “for its extreme efforts and sensiti-vity in the way it has been dealing with the matter”.
Finally I would like to remind the department that we now live in a constitutional democracy where values such as human dignity, equality and freedom underpin our Constitution. Rights such as the right to social assistance and just administrative action are what they are supposed to be: rights and not simply favours or privileges that can be taken away at will.
Charles Pillai is regional director of the Legal Resources Centre in Pretoria