– South Africans left disappointed as SASSA has only paid 116 867 Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress grant applicants so far
– President Cyril Ramaphosa had promised that South Africans would be paid by 15 May but millions still remain without the promised R350 monthly allowance
– South Africans have taken to social media to voice their frustrations over the slow payment process
Over a million South Africans have been left disappointed by the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) which has only paid 116 687 out of 3.5 million applicants for the SASSA Social Relief of Distress grant.
The emergency R350 Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress grant was announced on 21 April 2020 by President Cyril Ramaphosa and applicants were told that they would be paid by 15 May 2020. However, 15 May came and no one had been paid at all.
The agency announced that it had received 13 million inquiries and applications as at Monday, 25 May 2020. Just over 6 million of the applications received were valid complete applications. Others were duplicates, incomplete, had inconsistent data and were just pure inquiries.
SASSA came under fire for paying “just 10 applicants” on 22 May 2020. CEO Busisiwe Memela-Khambula confirmed that just 10 people had been paid the SRD grant and this was done to test the system as there is a highly complicated process involved before payments can be deposited.
Memela-Khambula added from the applications received they had to ensure there are no duplicates from people trying to cheat the system. They also had to check if the applicants are receiving any other social grants. She explained that the data also has to be sent to SARS for a further check and that is why the process takes long.
Today, SASSA found themselves trending on social media again as over a million applicants are still awaiting to be paid while other have received their money. SASSA fulfilled the promise it made to pay over 100 000 applicants but that is a small margin of the people who applied for the grant.