R350 Covid-19 relief grant queues unbearable for north residents
“Some people are here at 01:00 but that does not guarantee they will get the money because some people sleep here.“
Desperate Soshanguve residents vented their frustration at having to stand in long queues for hours on end, at the local post office to access the R350 special Covid-19 relief grant.
On Wednesday, a group of residents standing in long queues at the Nafcoc centre said some of them had been in those lines for several days without being assisted.
However, the post office said the issue was that Covid-19 regulations meant only a limited number of grant recipients could enter the premises at a time.
South African post office spokesperson Bongani Diako said the compliance with the Covid-19 regulations had impacted the flow of business processes across many sectors.
“Even though many social relief grant beneficiaries often come in large numbers at a time to post office branches to access their much-needed funds, branches are only allowed to accept a limited number of people inside at any given time,” Diako said.
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“In addition we must ensure that they are sanitised on entry, their details are recorded for contact tracing purposes should such a need arise, as well as the sanitation of the retail surfaces and equipment after every service engagement.
“Inevitably all these ‘new normal’ processes result in longer queuing time.”
Diako said the requisite compliance with social distances between people in the queues tended to make the queues “visibly longer”.
However, residents said they were suffering financially to get the R350 as well.
Some even had to borrow money for the taxi fare just to get to the Nafcoc centre.
“We use R30 to get here and R30 to go back. Most of us here are now familiar with each other because we have been together for the past three days, others have been here for six days.
“If you can multiply that money by the times we have been here, you will see that we will be left with nothing when we get the payout,” one of the people in the queue said.
Residents told Rekord the system that was being used to pay beneficiaries was failing them and they wanted the government to review it.
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“Some people are here at 01:00 but that does not guarantee that they will get the money. Some people sleep here.”
When asked if they did not fear contracting Covid-19 as a result of lack of social distancing and not wearing of masks they said: “What other alternative do we have apart from standing in these lines? We will not be killed by corona but we will be killed by starvation. We use this money to buy food, so it is not by choice that we are here during a pandemic.”
Thabo Malinga and Thato Kekana said they had borrowed money to visit the post office to apply for temporary identity documents so they could be able to access the R350.
They borrowed the R350 from a relative to pay for both temporary IDs and have enough to go back home.
“We will only be able to pay the R350 we borrowed after we get the money, the remaining R350 we will share.”
Nicolas Ledwaba said he had been in the queue since 04:00 to get an ID so he can access the grant.
Ledwaba said compared to other people, he was better off because he lived close to the Nafcoc centre.
“I am wearing a jersey in this heat because I was here at 05:00. Now it is midday and hot. I have not eaten or drank water but I feel my situation is better because home is not far from here.
“Others have to walk for two hours, just to get to their destination to be told there’s no money or the lines were cut because they are closing.”
Ledwaba said this was a most frustrating process but it was the only way to get the money which will help him make ends meet.
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