Sassa CEO Busisiwe Memela-Khambula, Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu, Digital Technologies Minister Mondli Gungubele and Postbank CEO Ntomboxolo Nikki Mbengashe during a press briefing at GCIS to update the public on Postbank and Sassa matters relating to late payments. Picture: Jacques Naude / African News Agency (ANA)
Johannesburg - The Democratic Alliance (DA) has threatened to take the Minister of Social Development to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) for its recent social grant fiasco, which resulted in scores of social grant recipients, including pensioners, being left without their September payments.
Yesterday, the DA announced that it will later today lodge an urgent complaint at the SAHRC against the Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu, the Department of Social Development, as well as the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) and Postbank for their part in the ongoing social grant payment failures.
On Thursday, the two ministers indicated that Postbank-Sassa issues have been resolved. However, reports indicated that not all recipients were able to access their grants.
A system update was believed to have caused the ‘’glitch’’ that caused payment delays.
However, the DA shadow minister of social development, Bridget Masango, and other representatives of the party said they would complain to the commission.
‘’Not only is the minister continuing to fail millions of vulnerable grant beneficiaries each month, but her department has also returned more than R15 billion to the National Treasury in unpaid social relief of distress (SRD) grants. This is while the DA is inundated every month by SRD grant beneficiaries struggling to gain access to their funds,’’ Masango said.
Masango said the ongoing failures have resulted in an alarming human rights violation, with mothers being compelled to abandon their babies due to their inability to feed them, creating a tragic and heartbreaking situation.
‘’Tomorrow, the DA will take legal action and will be laying an urgent complaint at the SAHRC offices in Johannesburg,’’ Mansago added.
Masango said the Postbank payment failure was the latest in a long line of failures to ensure recipients get their funds at the allotted times.
On Monday, Build One South Africa (Bosa) requested the Financial and Fiscal Commission investigate the department's decision to return the R15 billion in social grant funding to the Treasury.
Bosa said the money had been returned due to Sassa's failure to spend the funds on social grants, with Roger Solomons of Bosa saying there could be no excuse why pensioners were inconvenienced in this manner.
‘’We are of the view that the funds must be reversed in order to avoid this ongoing catastrophe, whereby poor and vulnerable citizens are regularly left in the lurch through incompetence, lack of vision, and inhumanity by the government and this respective department,’’ Solomons said.
The minister of social development also blamed Postbank and apologised to the pensioners for the recurring technical issue that is reported to have affected more than 100 000 grant recipients who, at the time of publication, were still not receiving part or the full amount of their grants.
The Star