Limpopo residents struggling to apply for COVID-19 distress grant

Some people in Limpopo say they are struggling to apply for the distress grant for the unemployed, as they are illiterate.

The province is vastly rural and has a high unemployment rate.

According to Stats SA, more than 77 000 people lost their jobs in the fourth quarter of 2019.

Groups of people went to the Senwabarwana SASSA offices, west of Polokwane, with the hope to apply for the distress grant.

They were however given pamphlets on how to apply online and were turned back.

South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) is yet to comment on the issue.

In this video below, SASSA CEO, Busisiwe Memela-Khambula unpacks the grant:

Grant applicants, Alfred Babu and Motsamai Selota, expressed their disappointment.

Babu says: “My problem is that after applying for a grant they gave me ten numbers and they say I have to take those numbers to SASSA so today when I come here to SASSA to tell them about those numbers, at SASSA they don’t know anything they don’t know the meaning of those ten numbers which they gave me.”

Selota says: “I am here to register I want to register for the R350 I don’t know what can I do. Its is the first time to register I don’t know anything about SASSA, I’m not employed what can I do.”

Meanwhile, some mothers, who want to register their new-borns for the child support grant in Senwabarwana in Limpopo, have expressed disappointment after being turned away twice from the SASSA office in town.

It is the only office open in the area and a large number of mothers flocked there on Wednesday and Thursday.

Others slept in the queue but were told to return next week.

Women from several villages in the Senwabarwana area also made their way to the SASSA office in town.

But most went home without being assisted after spending hours in the queue.

INFOGRAPHIC: SA’s COVID-19 stimulus package: