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Reality Check - A Genuine Question For The South African Government
Reality Check - A Genuine Question For The South African Government
Date: 2026-08-28
I would genuinely appreciate an answer to this from someone in Government or SASSA or anybody else in the know.
Why is it that when a prisoner is transferred from one prison to another anywhere in South Africa, their basic provisions continue without interruption? They continue to receive three meals a day, access to medical care, electricity and other basic necessities.
Yet an 83-year-old pensioner, whose only source of income is her SASSA grant, moves from KwaZulu-Natal to Cape Town and suddenly finds herself without financial support because she is told she has to re-apply simply because she has moved to another province. She is 83 years old. She has contributed to this country throughout her life and has reached an age where she should be able to live with some dignity and security. Instead, she is left waiting for an administrative process to be completed.
In the meantime, who is feeding her? Who is paying her electricity? Who is buying her medication and basic necessities? Who is making sure that she is okay?
And this is my question to Government:
Why can't an existing SASSA grant simply follow an elderly person when they move from one province to another? We are talking about a national social grant, not a provincial benefit. Moving from KwaZulu-Natal to the Western Cape does not change the fact that this woman is 83 years old and dependent upon that money to survive.
I am not suggesting that prisoners should be denied food, medical care or basic human necessities. They are human beings too. But surely, we must ask ourselves whether our system has its priorities right when an elderly pensioner can be left without her only source of income because of an administrative process.
An 83-year-old woman should not have to wonder where her next meal is coming from because she moved provinces. She should not have to choose between food and electricity. She should not have to rely on the goodwill of other people while waiting for Government bureaucracy to catch up with her.
So, SASSA, the Department of Social Development, or someone in Government please explain this to me. If there is a legitimate reason why an existing grant cannot simply be transferred when a pensioner changes province, I would genuinely like to understand it. And if this is simply an administrative failure, then perhaps it is time we fix it.
Government exists to serve its people not to leave its most vulnerable citizens fighting the system to receive what they are already entitled to.