The SA Post Office in the Eastern Cape has urged unemployed residents to stop showing up at its branches.
- Since 9 July, the Mthatha Post Office has paid the R350 grants to 10 570 people.
- More than 300 000 people have been paid across the Eastern Cape’s 154 active post office branches.
- The Mthatha branch sees more than 700 people per day, with most of those being unsuccessful applicants.
The SA Post Office (SAPO) in the Eastern Cape has urged unemployed residents to stop showing up at its 156 branches in the province for Sassa’s R350 grant unless they are approved beneficiaries and have been invited via SMS to collect the cash.
This after a shocking aerial picture taken outside Sutherland Street Post Office in Mthatha emerged, showing more than 700 people standing in a queue and not observing social distance rules.
The post office’s regional manager, Nombulelo Ngubane, told News24 the influx outside many of its offices was created by residents who wanted the grant despite it not having been approved.
Ngubane said the Mthatha branch had been seeing between 700 to 1 000 people per day since the commencement of the grant on 9 July.
ALSO READ | Long queues as people scramble for Covid-19 relief grants
She added while successful applicants received an SMS notification to collect the grant at the post office or at their banks unsuccessful applicants were also flocking to the offices daily.
“Beneficiaries respond to SMSes that are sent by Sassa upon finalisation and approval of unemployment grant applications. What has been observed is that many beneficiaries, who are showing up at post offices, don’t have the approval SMSes and are queuing at post offices based on hearsay”.
Ngubane said the SA Post Office had been roped in by the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) to disburse the R350 unemployment grants for people who do not have bank accounts.
She added to date, the Mthatha Post Office had paid 10 570 beneficiaries, while 300 000 people have been paid across all 154 branches in the province since 9 July.
“I would advise beneficiaries to wait for the invitation SMS before coming to the [post office]. I would also plead with beneficiaries to allow queue marshals to guide their queuing.
“They need to understand that SAPO has other customers also who need to have access to services and so patience and understanding is required. About 60% of people in the queues should not be at the [post offices] as their grants are not yet finalised,” said Ngubane.
The six-month special grant was announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in April and is administered by Sassa. However, the agency sparked outrage when it failed to pay the grants for almost two months. It said the delays were caused by verifying millions of applications.
In June, Sassa CEO Busisiwe Memela said the agency had received approximately 13 million enquiries or applications about the special Covid-19 social relief of distress (SRD) grant as of 25 May 2020.
She added about 6.3 million of these were valid complete applications. The rest were either duplicate applications, incomplete, had inconsistent data or were just pure enquiries.
News24 has been unable to get comment from Sassa national spokesperson Paseka Letsatsi despite multiple calls and messages.
The agency’s Eastern Cape spokesperson, Reverend Luzuko Qina, also did not respond to our text messages or take News24’s calls.
Ngubane said post office employees were battling with acts of lawlessness at their branches from people who were rejected.
She said hotspots for “unsavoury behaviour” were Mdantsane, Ngwenyathi, Mthatha, King Williams Town, East London main branch, Libode, All Saints, Idutywa, Port Elizabeth and Willowvale.
“Province-wide, we have experienced between 10 to 15 cases of people – these include the slashing of staff car tyres, physically damage to property, holding staff hostage, threatening staff and other customers”.
Eastern Cape police spokesperson Captain Khaya Tonjeni said a strong police contingent continued to monitor the situation in the Mthatha city centre.
“Police continue to patrol and monitor for the purpose of policing and preventing crime. No incidents have been reported so far. Police have been deployed to the Mthatha CBD to create awareness about the Disaster Management Act and compliance to applicable laws like social distancing, wearing of masks, curfew and ban on alcohol just to name a few”.
