Members of the Informal Traders Organisation at Atok outside Burgersfort in Limpopo say it’s concerned about the Social Security Agency’s (SASSA) decision to close the social grant pay points in their village and the surrounding areas.
They say this has a negative impact on their businesses amid the high unemployment rate. The closures led to some elderly people having to travel far, to access their pension grants. The association’s chairperson Joseph Makgati says they’ve been struggling to put food on the table since the closure of the pay points.
“The closure of pay points has really affected our businesses negatively because we were able to sell our products to elderly people and other social grant recipients. We used to have a few number of employees who were assisting us, but now they lost their jobs because I also lost the business.”
