About 20 activists affiliated to the #PayTheGrants campaign picket outside SASSA in Bellville where hundreds of people also queued to collect their disability grants. The R350 COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress grant was terminated today. Photo: Liezl Human
About 20 activists affiliated to the #PayTheGrants campaign picket outside SASSA in Bellville where hundreds of people also queued to collect their disability grants. The R350 COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress grant was terminated today. Photo: Liezl Human
Under the #PayTheGrant banner, dozens of people gathered outside SASSA offices in Bellville, Cape Town, on Friday afternoon to voice desperate calls for the Social Securities Agency to extend the payment deadline past today’s expiration date.
The last time vocal opposition was levelled against SASSA in Bellville, police responded by dispersing the predominantly elderly group of grant beneficiaries with water cannons.
Scores of protesters have gathered outside post offices all over the country on Friday demanding that the SASSA R350 COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant be extended and increased immediately.
SASSA SRD grant deadline not extended
In a statement released late on Thursday night, Sassa said that they would no longer be accepting applications for the special COVID-19 relief grant for the unemployed, with the SRD payments only to be paid out to those who have already had their applications approved.
“This means that no new applications will be accepted after this date. However, all applications which have been approved and who have not yet received the money will still be paid,” Sassa said.
Beneficiaries have been dealt a major blow by SASSA, and have voiced their grievances and demanded an extension and increase to the R350 payment be implemented at various waypoints across South Africa.
‘Our people need this’
GroundUp spoke to protesters at the Bellville SASSA office, where a similar gathering led to a controversial use of force by police in January this year.
Activist Bravo Thompson told GroundUp that people need the COVID-19 grant to buy food, saying that the campaign’s main focus is to have a basic income grant introduced. He said they also want SASSA to make it easier for people to apply and receive their grants.
Thompson said that at some post offices, people queue for hours only to be turned away when they reach the door.
Jo-Ann Cupido said that the grant was a critical source of income for those who have nothing else.
“Our people really need this R350. But now they put it to an end,” she said.
