Sassa spokesperson Paseka Letsatsi told The Citizen on Friday that the issue of people being turned away is being addressed.
The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has acknowledged reports of grant beneficiaries being turned away from its Johannesburg offices this week, but maintains that the issue is not related to capacity constraints.
This follows reports from frustrated beneficiaries on Thursday, who claimed they were denied assistance when they arrived at the Sassa offices.
Several individuals were allegedly told they could not be helped due to a “quota” system, prompting concerns about the agency’s ability to manage the high demand for services.
No policy of turning away beneficiaries
Sassa spokesperson Paseka Letsatsi told The Citizen on Friday that the issue had been acknowledged and was being addressed.
However, he clarified that it was not Sassa’s policy to turn people away once quotas were reached.
“Sassa implements its Queue Management System to manage long queues. There is no policy to turn people away,” Letsatsi explained.
Earlier this week, The Citizen visited the site after receiving complaints about beneficiaries being ignored.
Upon the media’s intervention, those who were initially turned away were eventually assisted.
However, Sassa denied that the assistance was prompted by media presence.
“Sassa officials are obliged to assist people when they come to our offices. There is no point that people get assisted because there was media interaction,” Letsatsi said.
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Verification process not a blanket delay
The issue was further complicated by reports that beneficiaries were told their grants would only be processed and sent out on 19 May.
Many of those affected were concerned whether this delay was linked to the agency’s new verification process.
Letsatsi addressed the confusion surrounding these delays, explaining that the beneficiaries visit Sassa offices for different reasons.
“The people who come to Sassa offices come for different reasons. There is a separate process to verify if Sassa is paying the right grant to the right person. However, there are unique circumstances for different people that come to our offices for assistance,” he said.
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Delay in payments
Speaking to The Citizen on 5 May, Sassa spokesperson Paseka Letsatsi said that the delay in payments would not affect all grant beneficiaries.
“The verification process is an ongoing process. For now, we want to appeal to our beneficiaries not to panic,” he said.
Letsatsi assured that social grant payments would continue as scheduled, with a slight delay for targeted beneficiaries.
“The targeted beneficiaries are those who use alternative forms of identification other than the standard 13-digit South African identity number to receive their social grants,” he explained.
Beneficiaries are urged to visit Sassa offices in person to have their ID numbers reviewed and properly recorded.
“Once these clients have presented themselves at various Sassa offices, a review will be done and then their 13-digit ID numbers will be captured in the system,” Sassa stated.
The agency warned that beneficiaries who fail to respond to the verification call may face grant suspension. Prolonged non-compliance could result in the complete lapsing of their grants.
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