Call to resume Covid-19 grants
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Cape Town - Civil society organisations advocating for the extension of the Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant and Basic Income Grant (BIG) say there was no justification for terminating the grants.
This as the amandla.mobi campaign recently received a response from the Presidency after handing over a petition with more than 58 000 signatures calling for the R350 Covid-19 SRD grant to be extended and increased.
The campaign said that after accepting signatures and promising a discussion on the extension, the Presidency had referred them back to the Department of Social Development.
“On May 4, after we sent an email asking the Presidency to tell us of the status of the R350 SRD grant, we were told that the issue of extending and increasing the R350 grant was under discussion.
Over 2 million grant recipients still unpaid
By Sinenhlanhla Zungu
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DURBAN - THE NGO Black Sash says the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) has revealed that over 2 million approved Covid-19 Social Relief Distress grant beneficiaries have not received their payments.
In addition, over a million people whose SRD grants applications were approved on appeal, were also still expecting payments.
“That means one person could be waiting to be paid for more than one month. We can safely say that more than 700 000 people were affected by this. The same situation applies to appeals. Appeals can be multiple appeals for the same person and about 200 000 people were affected,” said Paseka Letsatsi, Sassa’s head of communications.
13 May 2021 - Lee-Anne Bruce
CALS, Black Sash and Freedom Under Law note that former Minister of Social Development Bathabile Dlamini has paid the costs awarded against her personally
The Black Sash Trust, the Centre for Applied Legal Studies and Freedom Under Law note that Bathabile Dlamini has paid the costs awarded against her personally by the Constitutional Court for her role in the social grants crisis almost three years ago. The former Minister of Social Development was ordered to pay a portion of the costs of litigation brought by civil society organisations in an effort to protect the social grants system.
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In 2018, the Constitutional Court handed down a personal costs order against Bathabile Dlamini over her handling of the appointment of a social grants distributor.
Dlamini had failed to pay a 20% portion of the legal costs incurred by the Black Sash Trust and Freedom Under Law in bringing the case against her.
The organisations say they have received confirmation that Dlamini has settled a bill of more than R600 000.
Former social development minister Bathabile Dlamini has paid the personal costs order handed down against her by the Constitutional Court, the groups who took her to court announced on Thursday.
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Bathabile Dlamini pays R650 000 for her role in social grants crisis
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Pretoria - Former minister of social development Bathabile Dlamini has paid the costs awarded against her personally following a ruling made in this regard by the Constitutional Court in 2018 for her role in the social grants crisis.
The Centre for Applied Legal Studies (Cals) which represented the Black Sash Trust and others during the legal battle, confirmed that the former minister had paid R650 000 in total - her 20% portion of the legal costs which the Constitutional Court at the time said she was personally liable for.
She was ordered to pay a portion of the costs of litigation brought by civil society organisations in an effort to protect the social grants system.