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The Social Security Agency has had its hands full this week trying to assure social grant beneficiaries who haven’t yet been paid that they will be paid, as well as trying to avert a strike that will exacerbate its payment woes.
The agency has told beneficiaries that they might need to wait a few more days for their monthly grants, but has assured them that they will be paid in full.
The agency blamed the change in payment system for the problems experienced by those who usually received electronic payments and who couldn’t withdraw their money at ATMs on Monday.
“What is being experienced is a result of a process of changing from an old to a new payment system for social grants. We are also in a process of phasing out Cash Paymaster Services as directed by the Constitutional Court and introducing the South African Post Office to pay social grants,” said the agency’s acting chief executive Abraham Mahlangu.
He confirmed that the social grants would be paid in full, and asked beneficiaries to wait at least three days to withdraw their grants.
The agency and the Post Office were working to find a solution to the problem.
Meanwhile, social grant payments were not the only issues that the agency was dealing with this week – it was also off to the Labour Court over a wage dispute.
Social Development Minister Susan Shabangu’s lawyers argued in the Labour Court on Tuesday that the strike by disgruntled SA Social Security Agency employees would have an impact on the agency’s constitutional obligation to administer the payment of grants.
Shabangu filed an urgent application aimed at stopping the strike by members affiliated to the Public Servants Association, who had been on strike for about a month.
The association’s Tahir Maepa said they had hoped to resolve the pay dispute but instead they were slapped with court papers on Monday to say that the department of social development would apply for an interdict to stop the strike.
“They are oblivious that the poor are going to suffer,” Maepa told News24.
Shabangu’s Labour Court application to interdict the strike was postponed to Wednesday to allow both the Social Security Agency and the Public Servants Association to verify whether the striking employees were essential service workers.
The Public Servants Association tabled its demands on February 1 at the National Bargaining Forum.
These included a single-term agreement with a general sliding-scale salary increase of between 13% and 15%. The union also wanted a housing allowance, annual leave and safer working conditions.
The Social Security Agency met with other unions and agreed to give workers a 7% pay hike.
This offer was rejected by the association’s members who said they were not consulted.
