THE official opposition DA has called on the Minister of Social Development Lindiwe Zulu to allow for payment of R350 social relief of distress (SRD) grants for existing beneficiaries as well as clear all grant payments owed for the month of April.
This comes after the Department of Social Development announced last Friday that all eligible recipients, including those who received the grant previously, must re-apply.
The R350 SRD grant was introduced in 2020 to support those who experienced economic hardship as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier this year, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the grant will be extended for a year from April 2022 to March 2023.
But on Tuesday, SRD grant recipients continued to complain about the non-payment of their SRD grants for April.
The grant recipients also complained about the re-application challenges experienced by those trying to re-apply on the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) website.
“I see SASSA is telling all recipients of the SRD 350 grant to reapply, since the current grant lapsed in March. Why are they putting people through all these loops when they have the data to simply process them again?,” said a concerned Twitter account user.
Another Twitter account user said: “If SASSA wanted to end the R350, the should’ve just cancelled it, instead of making it an impossible task, to re-apply for it. Asking things like your life partner’s id, both parents id numbers, some people don’t have parents and some of us were raised by a single parent.”
“Just called SASSA now (0800 601 1011). Apparently the reason why April dates aren’t reflecting is because R350 grants have been put on hold. Said they’re currently waiting on @CyrilRamaphosa and cabinet to re-evaluate (yes again) whether or not to continue with the R350 grants,” another social media tweeted.
Thabanga Mojela wrote on Twitter: “Many people depend on this SRD grant and they didn’t receive it this month, and now they have to confirm existing application in a website that is useless and always offline, poor South Africans will suffer. Not everyone has a smart phone to always confirm application us required.”
DA’s MP Bridget Masango said: “What is concerning however, is that those who have previously applied and qualified for their SRD grant will have to re-apply. This announcement comes close to three weeks after many were set to receive their grants for the month of April. Many need to travel great distances, spend little funds they do have on transport, to visit SASSA offices and wait for hours in long queues.”
“Additionally, the burden that sits on SASSA to process all SRD grants is great and will only cause further delays in delivery. Considering that applicants whose grants have been wrongfully declined, many have been waiting for their appeal outcomes since August 2021.”
“Such delays cannot occur in the new applications process of the SRD grants. SASSA must therefore consider the delivery of existing grants where beneficiaries have already been vetted and verified.”
Masango said it was regretful that when there are legal or administrative challenges, that no provisions are implemented to ensure beneficiaries still receive their grants.
Grants play a critical role in improving the standards of living in society and ensuring the most vulnerable are protected from extreme poverty and hunger, she said.
“It is therefore unfortunate that beneficiaries will not receive their grants as a result of this legality. The DA will not allow inefficiencies in government to worsen the vulnerabilities of already impoverished South Africans.”
SASSA spokesperson, Paseka Letsatsi highlighted that only after the government has amended the regulations from the Disaster Management Act to Social Assistance act, will new applications be considered.
Letsatsi said that no applications would be processed until the Covid-19 regulations have been amended.
He said the agency will be providing the R350 grant under the Social Assistance Act.
The Institute for Economic Justice said under the new regulations released on Friday, hundreds of thousands may now find themselves disqualified from assistance they have relied on to survive.
The institute said the National Treasury and DSD are “pulling the rug out from underneath a significant number of the most vulnerable, without warning or consultation.”
“Friday’s gazetted regulations bring the SRD grant out of the national state of disaster introduced under the pandemic, and into the Social Assistance Act. Grant beneficiaries who had been expecting to receive their entitlements for April will now need to reapply under new, restricted, eligibility criteria,” the institute said in a statement.
“However, the regulations explicitly state that applications must be lodged before the 15th of the month. It appears that by suspending April processing and payments, and now wiping the slate clean of previously approved grant obligations, the April SRD grants are in jeopardy for millions of South Africans. While Treasury and DSD may have saved themselves a lot of money in April, this will be at the expense of the poor, and together with other aspects of the Regulations–is a violation of the President’s SONA commitment.”
The institute said the Government has an obligation to continue to progressively fund social protection and assistance which has been enshrined in practice and in legislation.
“This is in keeping with the Government’s constitutional obligation to progressively realise social protection and assistance. The SRD grant must be provided for all those who need and are eligible for it, in the current as well as in future budgets and adjustment budgets. As recent experience has shown, with the political will the necessary resources are able to be found. But it would be particularly objectionable for government to refuse to assist South Africans who have no other means of support, and are facing dire hunger and distress, in the context of current large revenue overruns.”
Earlier this month, Zulu implemented a raft of changes to counter fraud and corruption with SRD grant payments.
In December last year. 5 812 government employees fraudulently received the grant, costing the country R5.8 million.
It was also revealed that only 242 cases were being investigated, and none had made it to the police or National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
According to Zulu, the SRD application is managed entirely electronically, from application through to payment, and checks and balances are currently in place to ensure the correct person lodges applications.
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