SASSA Limpopo condems workers leaving clients for a funeral
Clients and beneficiaries who had been queuing outside at the Capricorn district offices were turned away by employees who seemingly told them that they had a memorial service to attend.
POLOKWANE – The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) in Limpopo says it condemns the apparent conduct of employees who recently showed customers away because of a funeral that needed to be attended.
Clients and beneficiaries who had been queuing outside at the Capricorn district offices from the early hours of the morning were turned away by employees at around 11:00, who seemingly told them that they had a memorial service to attend.
“The service was going well from at around 08:00 until security personnel at almost midday told us to leave because they were closing and all staff were leaving,” an affected beneficiary told Polokwane Observer.
“Workers do attend such events even during working hours whenever necessary, however, skeleton staff are left to render services. That would be unacceptable,” says provincial spokesperson Norman Kutama.
Kutama has asked those who were affected to contact them for an investigations to start.
“Our staff wear name tags. Those who were affected should name the employees that informed this to them and we will track the validity of this allegations,” he added.
One person apparently collapsed while waiting in the queue and was taken to the Pietersburg Provincial Hospital.
Incidents such as these have become prevalent at government institutions inclusive of Home Affairs and Labour due to the time customers have to spend in the queues. Scores of disappointed customers who were slow to disperse, explained that they come from far, and had been frequenting the offices for help, but were cut off due to long queues.
Some had visited the offices to enquire about grants and others to submit supporting documents.
