Over 14 000 grant beneficiaries stranded

A total of 14 098 pensioners and social grant beneficiaries across the country will be out in the cold this month and will have to re-register on a new system by next week if they are to receive their pensions for July.

In August, verified re-registered beneficiaries will receive their July and August payouts, while those who only re-register after the deadline of 15 July will receive their July and August payments in September.

This was confirmed by Esther Lusepani, the executive director in the ministry of gender equality, poverty eradication and social welfare, who described the situation as ‘regrettable’.

In a statement issued by the ministry, the discrepancies are blamed on the fact that some of the data transferred from the Social Assistance System - replaced by the Integrated Social Assistance System - could not be positively verified against the National Population Registry System as authentic.

This due to the misspelling of names, incorrect dates, fraudulent identity documents or identity theft incidences, she said, and - as a result - the system rejected 18 503 beneficiaries, which included 4 156 deceased persons and 249 expired disability grants.

“What we suspect is some incidences of identity theft and other errors. When someone does not show up to re-register by 15 July, then it could be that they have benefitted unfairly. We have cases where one person receives up to two or three pensions.

“This new system is very reliable, but the situation is very, very regrettable,” she said, adding that it would, however, create great efficiencies and some savings for government “because of the fraudulent claims”.

“When someone dies, the system will automatically remove them,” Lusepani said.

Hundreds of pensioners, persons with disabilities and other beneficiaries have been lining up at the social welfare offices in Khomasdal from dawn on Monday morning, desperately clamouring for answers.

Be patient

Minister Doreen Sioka confirmed that the ministry is aware that more than 14 000 grant recipients are affected, and pleaded with the affected people to be patient.

“The exercise has been planned for a long time to clean up the system with the help of the ministry of finance, and the cleaning is done through the new system connected to the ministry of home affairs,” she said.

She added that they will address capacity challenges to ease the re-registration of beneficiaries.

Limping pensioners and the terminally ill

The crowd in Khomasdal was dominated by limping pensioners and those suffering from epilepsy and terminal illnesses, including a man who had missed dialysis sessions just to line up for an explanation.

“I have [high] blood pressure and today I was supposed to [be attached to] the machine [dialysis] at 06:00, but I am here now because I did not get my money.

“They are telling me to just stand in the queue and I can faint any time,” he said.

Several mothers of children with epilepsy also joined to queue yesterday morning to find out “what happened to the money”.

According to one mother, the grant not only covers the basic needs of these children, but this abrupt interruption has severe implications on their health.

“We must also buy medication for that, and the medication for epilepsy is very expensive. One pill is N$1 200, another is N$800 and another is N$200. There are also other things we need to get them, but government just cuts [funding] without thinking of this,” she said.

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