Bad service not helping the foster children

Editor –

I was approached by the Department of Social Development during December last year, asking me to take a child into foster care, which then led me to SASSA Ladysmith to apply for a foster care grant.

To date, I have spent a total of 21 hours at their offices without being assisted. This is due to the fact that they have completely disregarded my presence. Two ladies in particular, who do the processing of the foster care grants, would not even acknowledge me when, on the third day of having to wait in line, I asked them if I was actually sitting where I was supposed to be sitting in order to be assisted by them. I approached their desk, greeted politely, but was ignored. I greeted once again, still with no response from them. I then asked if they would at least tell me which queue to sit in, but still they did not respond.

During the 21 hours I have spent there, various individuals complained about being sent ”from this end to that end” without being assisted. An elderly gentleman said that, “I’d rather be dealing with people who have no brains than being treated with disrespect by someone with half a brain who is not qualified to do the job they have been appointed to do. Yet we ensure that their monthly salaries are paid.”

The above-mentioned ladies sit with a cell-phone on their lap and continuously send messages and receive private phone calls. This means that everybody still inside the building at 4pm has to leave and go back the next day, only to spend another day in a queue. Some individuals, including myself, spend three to four hours sitting in the wrong queue, as they have no system whatsoever in place. I have no choice but to go back this week to try and apply for the grant all over again, which also means that I’ll be wasting many more valuable hours.