Motherwell residents battle to access grants

“My daughter has a three-month-old baby boy, she’s studying, my grandson’s father passed away, I don’t have a job, I’ve been coming to the Motherwell Sassa offices for three days, but I haven’t been helped.”

This was the desperate plea  of a 49-year-old Motherwell resident, who fought back tears as she waited in snaking queues hoping that she would receive her grant payments on Thursday.

Their concerns were aggravated after it emerged on Thursday that Motherwell was the epicentre of the Covid-19 pandemic in the Bay area.

The Motherwell police station closed on Wednesday  after a woman officer tested positive for Covid-19.

The plight of grant-seeking Motherwell residents starts before sunrise, with at least 40 people arriving as early as 1am on Thursday to wait outside the Motherwell Sassa offices to apply for a child or foster care grant.

They said their names were written on a list  — after being turned away on Wednesday due to capacity —  as a means of booking an appointment.

The 49-year-old woman said: “I came on Monday at 4am to apply for a grant for my grandson. I was told to return on Wednesday and then Thursday.

“I was afraid of being robbed, it was cold, I have back pains, I was afraid of catching the coronavirus, but because of my grandson I had to risk and come to the Sassa office at 3am.

“A man from the Sassa office told us they had finished taking their list and we should leave.

“When I came back on Thursday I saw new people and we were told to leave, because they had finished taking the number they wanted.”

Another woman who said she had arrived at 1am said there were about 500 people who had queued up on May 13 — with no social distancing being adhered to — but were told to go home after 15 were attended to.

“There are more than 100 people that aren’t on the list, but their names were taken down, but some of those people had slept here from 8pm on May 13,” the woman said.

Sassa regional manager Bandile Maqetuka said Sassa offices had returned to  normal working hours, but with limited working capacity as they were only allowed to have 30% of the working staff.

Maqetuka said first preference would be given to people who wanted to apply for child or foster care grants for children born before or during the lockdown and a list would be drafted after the required number was met.

“If we had 100 applications that were filled in by officials in a day, for example, the office would be able to do about 30, because they’d have to adjust accordingly.

“This is to ensure that the quality of work isn’t compromised.”

He said people should raise their complaints using the Sassa toll free number.

“On Friday no-one can go to Sassa offices, because they will be doing their admin work, not unless they have been invited by a Sassa official for documents that might be required,” Maqetuka said.

A stone’s throw away in NU10, the police station was closed due to Covid-19.

On Thursday morning, more than 100 SAPS members were at the Raymond Mhlaba Sports Centre in Motherwell NU4 to be screened by officials from the department of health.

However, by late afternoon about half of the members insisted on being tested and instead made their way to Livingstone Hospital for Covid-19 testing.

“A group of us were tested and told to self-isolate for 14 days, so we will not be reporting for duty until we get our results,”  one of the SAPS members said.

National police spokesperson Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo confirmed that a SAPS member had tested positive, adding that decontamination of the police station would start as soon as possible.

Naidoo confirmed the station had been closed and members would be operating out of the NU4(b) Shoprite Centre as of Friday.

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