Protest over R370 grant!

ALL qualifying people must get the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) R370 grant.

This is according to activists and community leaders from around Gauteng who picketed outside the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday, 29 October.

The Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) and #PayTheGrants have taken the government to court, arguing that procedural barriers have excluded millions of poor South Africans from accessing the grant.

The case will be heard over two days - Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 October.

Speaking during the protest, General Moyo, who is the leader of Makause Community Development Forums in Germiston, Ekurhuleni, said the government was failing to create jobs and, instead of helping the poor, it excluded them.

"We are litigating against the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa), including the Treasury because more exclusions mean more suffering for the poor," he said.

He said millions of applications were turned down due to technical glitches.

Moyo said he didn't believe the technical problems that the government has used as an excuse and said the issue was corruption within Sassa and the Home Affairs Department.

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He said he welcomed the findings by first-year computer science students from Stellenbosch University, Veer Gosai and Joel Cedras, who have uncovered a shocking misuse of ID numbers within the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa).

"This is a concern that we've been raising it before it was even discovered by these students. We have been receiving complaints from beneficiaries who are about to turn 18 years old being already active on the SRD grants. This is fraud that cannot be orchestrated by the vulnerable people or the very same young people. This is the work of an organised syndicate within the Home Affairs Department who collect young people's data and sell it to the criminals," said Moyo.

Peter Monete, a leader from Freedom Park, said he gets his grant intermittently.

"If I get it this month, I won't get it in the next two months. I always get told that it's because of other sources of income which I know nothing about," he said.

The father of three said he didn't even have a bank account. He said his family survives on child support grants and handouts from friends and neighbours.

"Sometimes I have to swallow my pride and go to our local school which occasionally provides the needy people in the community with vegetables. This grant thing is very frustrating," said Monete.