Pretoria – As the Department of Social Development and the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) continue with the payment of social grants on Monday, recipients are encouraged to go on their respective days to pay points, as indicated on their last slips.
Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini and her Deputy Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu are today visiting SASSA pay points in Mpumalanga and Gauteng, respectively, to monitor and ensure a smooth process of social grant payments.
On 01 April 2017, SASSA paid over R3.3 billion worth of social grants without incident and over six million transactions by social grant beneficiaries were confirmed by the agency early in the morning.
Minister Dlamini said the social grants programme is a priority of government and the department is confident that as this week unfolds, all other deserving beneficiaries will receive their grants.
“We have confidence in the institutions of government and our service provider, which delivered successfully to our people today,” Minister Dlamini said on Saturday.
During her outreach at Khadima Centre and Burgersfort Mall, Minister Dlamini urged beneficiaries to return the green card to its owners as it does not belong to SASSA.
She reiterated that the correct SASSA card bears a government coat of arms and official SASSA logo. Beneficiaries also expressed their joy and gratitude to government for payment of grants timeously.
The Minister also emphasised that normal business processes will continue, and any form of lapsing or suspensions that may occur may not imply a failure to pay by SASSA.
“Government remains committed to helping millions of South Africans escape the burden of poverty every month by providing social grants. We have also found as we visited different merchants that we need to protect the intellectual property of SASSA as it is abused my many retailers,” she said.
She further thanked SASSA officials for working tirelessly to ensure a smooth process of social grant payments.
“We would also like to thank beneficiaries for heeding government’s call to get their social grants as normal. We extend our appreciation to the media for conveying the message that grants will be paid today and for the support in conveying our heartfelt and sincere apology to all South Africans for the undue anxiety which had been caused in the run-up to 1 April 2017.”
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