Left in the lurch by Sassa’s failure to pay disability grants

Just like every fourth day of every month, Melanie Mc Kernan was carried down the stairs of her building on Tuesday morning to go to her local supermarket to withdraw her disability grant.

Her monthly routine includes collecting her R1,900 grant from the local Spar and immediately spending R800 at the pharmacy next door on her monthly medication. The remainder of her monthly grant is given to her parents, aged 70 and 76 and a small portion to her own toiletries.

But this time, her morning ended up with confusion at the SASSA office in Midrand where she had gone to enquire about her grant money not being paid in as usual.

Three days later, Mc Kernan remains one of thousands of disabled beneficiaries who had not yet received their temporary disability grants this month.

“I went on the fourth to withdraw at Spar as usual, and the money wasn’t in. I went straight to the Sassa offices and they were not helpful… When I returned home, I tried to get hold of someone. I wrote to them and they said they acknowledge my inquiry but didn’t do anything further. I am still waiting. There is nothing – no money, no feedback, no help,” Mc Kernan said.

Mc Kernan, 46, has been living in a wheelchair for nearly seven years, after a fall gradually led to her losing feeling and the use of her left leg.

“I never went to a doctor for quite a while because I thought it would come right. And then I started losing feelings only on the left side. I eventually managed to get into the hospital, waited a year for the MRI scan, spent six weeks in neuro high-care and they told me after all that I would never walk again because I have a shunt and they can’t operate. I have damaged my back and if they operated, there would be slim chances of me not walking ever again, or not making it through the operation. And that is how I ended up in a wheelchair,” she said.

Her recovery journey yielded some positivity as she was soon able to get her leg working again. But that was short-lived after a domestic violence incident further damaged her back, leaving her with no feelings in the legs.

“I have no feeling in my legs. I am permanently in a wheelchair. I can’t understand why Sassa is so blasé. The grant is all that I have to do what I have to do because I don’t get my medication from the hospital, I have to buy it,” she said.

Similarly, Rorisang Nthabeleng Moalosi, 25, is concerned about where to find money to buy her baby’s nappies as she depended on her disability grant to support her children.

She has only been dependent on the grant for the past year, despite being blind in one eye due to an injury when she was seven years old. The injury also eventually led to her losing her hearing in one ear.

When she enquired at the Sassa office in the Free State on Wednesday, she was told the money would be deposited during the course of the month.

“There are four of us in the house and they all depend on me and that grant. This includes two of my children, and my nine-month-old baby is without nappies. When I went to enquire, they told me we will get it next month but we must keep checking throughout the month if the grant is in. I am so stressed. I have nothing.”

A third recipient says the money came trickling in at only R1 at a time on Thursday night.

The woman with severe asthma, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “I use that money to support my three children, two of whom have learning disabilities. The money has been trickling in R1 after R1, it is now R21. Some people on social media say we might receive our money on 15 August. But what are we going to eat in the meantime? We are now forced to buy food on credit,” she said.

Sassa was contacted for answers but did not respond to The Citizen’s questions.

– rorisangk@citizen.co.za

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.