The President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa has given the South African Social Services Agency a lot of mandate to make sure the social grants provided by his government are not disturbed by the lockdown. SASSA is providing normal and additional services during lockdown as ther has been a lot of changes economically in the country due to lockdown implemented to fight the spread of the coronavirus.
After the announcement by the president on the 23rd April 2020 that there will be increases in grants offered to South Africans, SASSA has a lot of additional work ahead of them to make sure they meet the announcement before payments date. SASSA has extended the grants payment dates starting from May as the grants will be paid from the 5th where normally the payment dates starts from the last day of the month until the 3rd of each month.
The president announced that all grants from elderly persons, children grants and other grants will increase for the net 6 months to help South Africans during lockdown and a few months after as the outbreak of the coronavirus affected economy where a number of companies are closing and won’t be able to reopen again. Some companies will be paying their workers half the salary, so the increase of grants will help families to have enough essential goods to live a better life until the economy recovers from the pandemic.
He further announced the new temporary grant which will be given to all South Africans who are 18 years and older who are unemployed. The unemployment distress grant is available until October 2020 but the presidency is negotiating for this grant to continue post the lockdown as unemployed people are struggling in all provinces of the country. The grant will be paid monthly and is said to be R350 a month.
SASSA will be accepting applications for the new grant from the 27th April 2020 so that they can start paying at the end of the May. All unemployed South Africans are who are unemployed are encouraged to apply for this grant as soon as possible to avoid missing out on the first payment at the end of May.
People who are currently employed and receiving half salaries from employers are encouraged to apply for UIF from the government as the fund is meant to deal with situations like the lockdown. All companies who registered their employees to the UIF are encouraged to apply for the funds available to them so that they can be able to pay their employees during the lockdwon while they are not able to operate as there are a number of reported incidents where employees where not paid their salaries on the 25th April 2020
