Millions in distress apply to Sassa for special Covid-19 grant
The grant of R350 a month is for those with no income and the number of applications received is a sign of the desperation in SA
The SA Social Security Agency (Sassa), tasked with distributing social grants says it has received 13-million applications and inquiries for the payment of the R350 a month social distress relief grant intended to help those with no source of income survive the Covid-19 lockdown.
While some of these applications are duplicates, their big number is nevertheless a sign of the acute distress being suffered by SA citizens. This was confirmed on Friday by another statistic supplied by officials of the department of social development who told parliament’s two social development committees that with the coronavirus pandemic, food security has become “a national crisis” with evidence suggesting that about 50% of the population is food insecure...
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