The South Africa Security Agency (SASSA) offices in Phoenix has come under the spotlight after chaos and mayhem reigned on Monday morning, 16 May, as desperate residents were turned away, without notice, and only told to come back after two weeks.
A large crowd of residents, including mothers carrying their babies, the elderly and frail using walking sticks, boycotted the offices as they refused to leave the premises until they were served. The angry residents said they were frustrated with the winding queues and the extremely “slow” services by the office.
Speaking to the Phoenix Tabloid, Phoenix pensioner, Mrs B Reddy, said she has not been attended to since April. “I recently turned 60 and have been coming to the SASSA office for the past few weeks in attempts to apply for my old age pension. It has been nothing short of a nightmare travelling with public transport in the early hours of the morning, waiting in long queues with no chairs to sit on, only to be sent home in the afternoon and told to come back the next day,” said Reddy.
The pensioners said they were made to wait in the queue, outside the offices, “like dogs”. “There’s absolutely no order or system in place, people do as they please, some come hours after us, cut the queue and leave, while we are forced to stand in the scorching heat, waiting for our turn. It’s even more disheartening that the security guards witness this, but couldn’t care less. We are senior citizens with chronic conditions, it beats me how they expect the old and frail to stand in long queues for hours and days on end without prioritising our social welfare.”
Stanmore resident, Monica Smurden, who was recently robbed off her SASSA card, spoke about her experience when she went the offices on Friday, 13 May. “I came to the SASSA office at 6am to replace my stolen card and found myself standing in the queue which hadn’t moved an inch by lunch time. There was no order, no social distancing, people weren’t using their masks and the security guards didn’t care. As it is Covid-19 cases are rising by the minute, but it was business as usual at SASSA. What was even more frustrating was the fact that no one cared to inform us on what the hold up was. We were left in the dark, to figure things out on our own. It seems that SASSA employees are always on a go-slow,” said Smurden.
Another irate resident, Lamia Rangila said: “I came to apply for child support grant, it’s my second day and at this rate, it’s most certainly not the last. The service in this place is pathetic to say the least. There’s a few security guards on site but the place is always chaotic. We can’t have people coming out of nowhere and getting served before others who have been standing in the queue and waiting their turn the entire day. We don’t know if the staff is taking bribes or prioritising their friends and family. This is unacceptable, unethical and should be investigated. Only a single person was being seen to every 45minutes on Friday. In the afternoon, people who had waited a full day to be helped were told to leave, the staff is always dragging their feet and never want to do their job. It’s really frustrating.”
An unemployed mother who did not want to be named said she has been coming to the SASSA office with her three-month-old baby since the beginning of May and still hadn’t been seen to. “We are running out of patience with these people, they are only concerned about their tea and lunch breaks and never about the large crowd of people waiting in the hot sun to get basic services. We are tired of being treated like a bunch of nothings and are calling on the Minister of Social Development to investigate this office and its employees,” said the irate mother.
Speaking to the Phoenix Tabloid, Senior Manager for Communications at SASSA, Sandy Godlwana said the building was going under renovations and that residents are being attended to at the parking lot. She said the delays were being caused by influx of customers from other areas, including neighbouring Verulam and Tongaat.
