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The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the decision by the Chairperson of the Social Development Portfolio Committee, Mondli Gungubele, to schedule a briefing by the Department of Social Development (DSD) and its entities regarding temporary disability grants. This comes after two requests from the DA for an urgent meeting in light of the confusion around the lapsed grants as well as long queues outside South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) offices.

Last month, SASSA suspended more than 200 000 temporary disability grants and care dependency grants across the country. Due to SASSA and the DSD’s poor planning, thousands of disability grant beneficiaries have had to queue outside of the Agency’s offices for hours, and in some cases overnight, to simply apply for these much-needed grants.

Just yesterday morning we received reports from outside the SASSA Johannesburg Office of long queues and applicants being turned away. (See picture) And on Friday, the nation was horrified by images and videos of the police using water cannons to enforce social distancing measures outside the SASSA Bellville Office. Many of those in the queue were elderly and disabled beneficiaries who had been waiting in the rain for hours. The Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu, then decided to address these applicants from a police Casspir, once again proving how out of touch she is.

This meeting is therefore critical in not only holding SASSA and the DSD accountable but also Minister Zulu as she is ultimately responsible for this debacle. Her poor leadership is to blame for her department and entities bungling the temporary disability grants and care dependency grants process.

The DA will demand full transparency from the Minister, DSD and SASSA on the following issues:

Why SASSA did not extend the temporary disability grants and care dependency grants knowing that they had institutional challenges which would delay assessments;

Why more doctors had not been brought on board to assess applicants - a national plan to fast track the assessment is required as only 32 people are being seen by a doctor per site; and

Why SASSA failed to capacitate its offices with adequate staff to assist with the influx in applications?

Had SASSA and the DSD shown any foresight, these long queues and inhumane treatment of the poor and vulnerable could have been avoided.

The absolute bungling of the temporary disability grants process cannot be sugar coated and we trust that every member of the Social Development Committee will hold the Minister and those who report to her fully accountable for their failures on Wednesday.

Issued by The DA