Dying diggers of Namaqualand need saving
| by Gizella Opperman, MP – Constituency Head of Hantam-Karoo Hoogland |
| Date: 21 June 2020 |
| Release: Immediate |
| With residents of small towns in the Northern Cape being left out in the cold by SASSA, the Democratic Alliance is making an urgent appeal to the Department of Social Development to step in to ensure that our most vulnerable communities have legitimate access to social relief programmes.Since the start of lockdown, SASSA services in many of our poorer and more rural areas have been suspended, without the implementation of any alternative systems in place. This is completely unacceptable, given that SASSA’s mandate, as prescribed by the constitution, is ultimately to provide a safety net for to those in distress. Instead, however, SASSA has ripped that safety net right from under them.In effect, struggling residents, who have had to rely on satellite services, are now being expected to get to the nearest SASSA offices, at their own expense, to seek social relief. For people who are desperately poor, this is completely unfair an unacceptable.An official from the SASSA offices in Niewoudtville, which is also meant to service areas such as Loeriesfontein, confirmed that they received notification earlier this week that, in spite of the move to level 3, they are still not permitted to service the smaller towns. Instead, people from smaller, far away towns, must make their own arrangements to visit SASSA’s Niewoudtville office because of safety challenges relating to the use of community halls.To put this into perspective, one only needs to consider the case of a young, unemployed resident by the name of Gabrielle Klaaste. Klaaste, who has no money, needs to make transport arrangements to get to Niewoudtville SASSA offices with her three-year old son, in order to apply for a child grant. Niewoudtville, however, is 70 kilometres away. In addition to this, Klaaste first needs to undertake a trip to Calvinia, which is 130 kilometres away, to get her identity document from Home Affairs, before she can even proceed to the SASSA offices. Klaaste’s situation is not a one of a kind and there are many others like her in the Hantam area.The entire situation means that our growing population of poor and unemployed citizens, are in effect being thrown to the wolves.The DA wants the Social Development Department to intervene. SASSA cannot be permitted to continue like this, without putting reasonable measures in place to ensure that penniless citizens are not excluded from social relief due to their inability to secure transport. At the same time, serious talks need to be entered into with Home Affairs to also expand access to services. Obtaining ID documents, and even birth and death certificates, has become an insurmountable challenge for some communities, when in fact it is a basic right and a basic necessity.We are heading from a recession to a depression, and many more people are going to become even more dependent on the state for their very survival. Action must be taken now to resolve the challenges standing in the way of social relief before we are faced with a full-on humanitarian crisis. |
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