The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Western Cape will declare the minister of social development, Lindiwe Zulu, to the South African Human Rights Commission (HRC). The DA believes Zulu acted negligently and failed to ensure that the socio-economic rights of Sassa beneficiaries in the Western Cape are maintained. Social security was not provided to them.
“The DA in the Western Cape has been overwhelmed by complaints from desperate Sassa beneficiaries right across the province who are struggling to withdraw their funds from ATMs and retailers due to technical errors from the Post Bank,” says Wendy Kaizer-Philander, the DA’s chief whip. in the Western Cape Parliament.
“The errors affect beneficiaries with Sassa gold cards. However, the Postbank has told these cardholders that they can still access their allowances via South African Post Offices. The problem, however, is that many Post Office branches in the Western Cape have closed. As a result, the few Post Office branches that are still open have been overloaded and beneficiaries have been forced to travel long distances to their nearest Post Office branches.”
Kaizer-Philander adds that while the Western Cape government is constantly trying to ease social and economic pressure on its residents, efforts are consistently thwarted by incompetence at the national government level.
“The Democratic Alliance in the Western Cape will tackle this issue until Minister Zulu is held responsible for failing to help the residents of the Western Cape.”
