DA lawyers give Social Development Minister until 17:00 to respond to request on opening SASSA offices, or we’ll see her in Court
4 May 2020
The Democratic Alliance’s (DA) lawyers have written to the Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu, and SASSA CEO, Busisiwe Memela, to request that SASSA offices countrywide are opened to assist with the influx of applications for social grants and relief during the Covid-19 lockdown period.
We have given Minister Zulu until 17:00 today to respond to our very reasonable request. The DA’s lawyers are instructed to launch a Court application to compel Government to open SASSA offices if the Minister fails to see reason and do the right thing.
The DA has continuously requested the opening of SASSA offices to assist vulnerable people during the Covid-19 crisis. And time and again the Minister has ignored not only the pleas of the Party, but she also seems deaf to the cries of desperation sounding in the streets.
With the announcement of the special R350 Social Relief of Distress Grant, SASSA would have no doubt experienced increased pressure on its limited resources during this time. While applications for grants can be done via dedicated hotlines, email, texts and WhatsApp, the reality is that many of those who are in desperate need of relief assistance do not have access to these platforms.
It is, therefore, utterly nonsensical that in an attempt to address these potential technological challenges, the Department plans to rather spend money to train volunteers and buy them equipment to assist those in need. This, while SASSA offices remain closed and trained and paid employees sit at home. This money can surely be better spent on food parcels for vulnerable families.
The Department seems hellbent on ignoring sound advice and doing what is right. This is hardly the time to be spiteful when thousands upon thousands of our people are facing increasingly dire situations every day.
It is the Department of Social Development’s responsibility to ensure that the people in their care can access immediate relief during this crisis period and one way of doing this is to re-open all SASSA offices, in accordance to strict social distancing and hygienic measures.
Issued byBridget Masango,DA Shadow Minister of Social Development, 4 May 2020
