Every day when the clock hits 10am, workers at the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) in Emalahleni, Mpumalanga, tell waiting beneficiaries to leave and lock the offices.
The broken-down and dilapidated building does not comply with the Occupational Health and Safety Act, so the employees have only been able to work between 7am and 10am since February.
Grant beneficiaries who arrive after the cut-off time are sent home and told to return the following day.
When Sowetan visited the offices, which processes about 50 beneficiaries a day, some grant recipients, including those who had arrived as early as 6am, were being turned away.
The building has no emergency exits or ventilation, as none of the windows open. The bathrooms do not have extractor fans to expel smelly and moisture-laden air from the toilets.
Paint is peeling off the damp walls and mould has formed on the rotten ceiling.
Sassa spokesperson Andile Tshona said the office had to reduce its opening hours because the building does not fully comply with the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
“Section 8 of the Act states that every employer shall provide and maintain, as far as is reasonably practicable, a working environment that is safe and without risk to the health of their employees,” he said, adding that the department of employment and labour found that the building did not tick all the boxes outlined in the act.”
One of the beneficiaries who was sent home when Sowetan visited the offices was 28-year-old Thando Mabena, who had been there three times for a review of her eight-year-old son’s disability grant without being helped.
“I cannot get here as early as 6am because it’s still dark and I’m using a taxi,” said Mabena. “Today I was just going to collect forms, but they still told me to come back tomorrow, just for forms. Where will I get the money to come here so that my son gets his grant next week?”
Agnes Ngubane, 53, said she stopped receiving her disability grant last year and has not been able to get it renewed. She said she has had to borrow money from neighbours to travel to the Sassa office, but has been sent home numerous times.
“I was here last Friday and they sent me back because they have closed,” she said. “And then I got the opportunity today to just get inside, but they told me that I need to come back to do my review in September.”
Tshona said the public works department was “working on getting Sassa an alternative building”.
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