Rise Mzansi believes that it is the ANC-led government that is to blame for the more than 100,000 grants that have still not been paid out.
“It is now a week since one hundred thousand beneficiaries have still not received their Sassa allowance. It is regrettable that the situation is not getting better,” says Esther Padi, national coordinator of Rise Mzansi.
RNews earlier reported that thousands of beneficiaries had to wait for more than a week to withdraw their monthly allowance due to “technical challenges” at Posbank.
“The technical errors to which the ANC government refers and which are blamed for the disaster are not an accident. This has been years in the making and started when the Sassa payout contract was illegally awarded to Cash Paymaster Services. We also directly see the impact of political interference and mismanagement because the Post Office and Postbank’s turnaround strategies were cut short by the ANC government’s political interference.”
Padi believes the disaster could have been completely avoided.
“The government and Sassa must urgently assess the actual state of the Postbank and whether it can perform this life-saving task at all, otherwise alternative arrangements must be made. The country should not once again see beneficiaries go home without money for food or other basic necessities.”
She says Rise Mzansi volunteers at the ground level have heard stories of vulnerable beneficiaries who are fighting to survive. “The situation is dire and has left South African citizens in an unfavorable and undignified condition.”
Rise Mzansi calls on the Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu, to do more to help poor South Africans whose livelihood depends on social grants.
