In Carletonville on 1 April 2020, payment of child support social grants contravened many of the crowd prohibitions as stated by the President of South Africa and the Lockdown Regulations.
SASSA announced on 26 March 2020, that it would pay social grants to older persons and persons with disabilities on 30 and 31 March. This was following a directive from Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu, who said “these protective measures must be enforced to prevent local COVID-19 transmission” in a press conference.
Overcrowding and long queues were some of the challenges experienced on Monday and Tuesday (30 and 31 March). On Wednesday (1 April) the situation was not different, especially at the FNB ATM, other banks and shops like StarSupermarket and the post office, where there were long queues and no monitoring control.
However, the government said in a media statement, released on Wednesday, 1 April, that the first two days set aside to pay social grants to older persons and persons with disabilities was “on the whole largely successful, despite some challenges in some areas.”
This article was submitted on 2 April 2020. You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and Karibu! Online (www.Karibu.org.za), and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
