Pamela van der Merwe, Fish Hoek
It was good news when it was announced that South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) would be assisting people at the Fish Hoek civic hall, but the queues are very long, the staff are insufficient and they start at 8.45am, leave before 4pm and only help a handful of people each week.
The biggest problem for people waiting from 5am is that they have to pay taxi fares, and some of them need child minders who must be paid. These people return week after week with no assistance.
I personally know of an elderly lady with a handicapped child at home in Ocean View. It costs her R50 for the minder and R30 a day for the taxi.
If she cannot find a helper for her child, she must spend R60 a day to receive money she is entitled to.
This woman has been up and down, waiting to be assisted for six weeks. She is not young anymore and has nobody to help her, but she must wait her turn.
How is this acceptable? She is but one case of hundreds. Extend the hours, add staff and do what you are supposed to do – serve the people.
• Sassa spokesperson Shivani Wahab responds: Sassa in the Western Cape can confirm that services were reintroduced at the Fish Hoek civic centre in April after approximately more than a year.
A team of seven officials from the Wynberg office is allocated to render these mobile services, which include: queue walking, intake, enquiries and completion of applications.
Staff have to first fulfil their daily admin at the office and then allow approximately 30 to 45 minutes of travel time to get to the Fish Hoek civic centre. Based on these factors, Sassa mobile services may only commence at 8.30am and run until 3.30pm to allow staff to travel back to the office.
No additional staff may be allocated as the local office is also equally under pressure with a high influx of clients.
Based on the fact that services were only recently introduced in the area (four months ago), there is obviously a high demand at this service point.
The average number of clients assisted over the last three weeks was 113. The total average for applications was 105 clients and the average per official was 26 clients.
Clients have the option of accessing the Sassa contact point most convenient for them. We do operate through a network of 16 local offices across the province.
Alternatively, Sassa has introduced an online application system that simplifies the process and prevents the issue of clients having to use public transport and wait in queues.
Sassa staff remain committed to assisting those in need, despite the capacity challenges.
Staff are often verbally abused by clients when operations cease at 3.30pm. The matter has been brought to the attention of management and the Sub-council 19 manager.
