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Today, the Western Cape Provincial Parliament’s Standing Committee on Social Development was briefed by representatives of SASSA Western Cape on ongoing service delivery challenges – with specific reference to the imminent liquidation of the South African Post Office (SAPO). While some progress has been made, the DA in the Western Cape remains concerned at the level of service delivery experienced by SASSA’s Western Cape clients.

According to SASSA’s representatives, the contract between SASSA and SAPO has been ceded to Postbank since October 2022. SASSA has worked with Postbank to ensure that SASSA cards, millions of which were due to expire between March and June 2023, will remain valid until December 2023. SASSA further stated that it has worked to ensure the payment of grants directly into the bank accounts of the vast majority of its clients.

While these measures are encouraging, major questions remain. For one, many rural and older clients remain reliant on the direct withdrawal of grants from SAPO offices, and SASSA themselves admitted that this remains a concern – as does the number of doctors available to process disability grant claims.

More worryingly still, it seems that despite SASSA’s efforts, the ratio of SRD grant approvals to payouts has fallen dramatically. In April 2022, SASSA paid out 93.61% of approved SRD grants. In March this year, it paid out only 81.73% - meaning that more than 108 000 SRD grants went unpaid. This is also the lowest payment rate of any province in South Africa.

Today’s meeting further revealed that SASSA faces large-scale staffing shortages, in large part due to the failure of Minister Lindiwe Zulu to sign off on new staffing structures which will enable the rectification of this problem. At present, many positions are filled by acting staff members, who are not capacitated with the necessary resources to fulfil their mandates. As has been the case in the past, it seems that a lack of leadership at the national level has severely hampered SASSA’s ability to deliver on its mandate.

DA Western Cape Spokesperson on Social Development Dan Plato says: “While we welcome the progress made by SASSA in some areas, there is a lot more that must be done. It is concerning that a consistent problem of understaffing has been allowed to develop, and it is difficult to imagine that ongoing service-delivery issues are not the result of this oversight. We also believe that more can be done to streamline the grant application and disbursement process, and to ensure that rural residents are not left behind as SASSA modernises its operations.”

Issued by Dan Plato, MPP - DA Western Cape Spokesperson on Social Development