Pensioners queue from 2am at SASSA office in Tshwane
Beneficiaries sleep on cardboard outside the Soshanguve office
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Pensioners say they have to queue from the early hours of the morning to access services at SASSA’s Soshanguve office. Photo: Keletso Mkhwanazi
Pensioners say they have to queue from 2am to access services at the office of the SA Social Security Agency (SASSA) in Soshanguve, Tshwane.
When GroundUp visited the office on Thursday, 14 May, we found long queues. Beneficiaries, including old people, said they sleep outside the building on blankets and cardboard boxes until security guards open the building at 7am.
Solomon Shabalala, 65, said he had been trying to get an old-age grant since June 2025.
“I’ve been struggling to pay rent and buy groceries since I stopped working,” he said.
Motsatsi Mothipa was at the office to accompany her 92-year-old mother, Melita, who wanted to make enquiries about her old-age grant and a foster-care grant she receives for the care of her nephew. “We’ve been coming here for the fifth time without getting assisted, my mom is using crutches, she can’t walk long distances,” said Motsatsi Mothipa.
Spokesperson Paseka Letsatsi said SASSA had a queue management system. Old age grant beneficiaries were scheduled to come to the Soshanguve office only on Mondays and Wednesdays, and child support grant beneficiaries on Tuesdays and Thursdays. But Shabalala said he had specifically been told to come on a Thursday.
Letsatsi said there were two parts to the Soshanguve office: a main office and a disability unit.
“Elderly people who come to the disability side usually come for a Grant in Aid. Clients are mostly on crutches and wheelchairs and are frail.” He said these clients were prioritised, followed by beneficiaries of the Care Dependency Grant and then of the Disability Grant.
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Letters
Dear Editor
This is ABSOLUTELY SHOCKING !!!
How can any person with any form of dignity & self respect within themselves treat the elderly or people with disabilities like this?
If you, as an employee at SASSA, cannot stand up and fight for better systems to be put into place for these people, then you DO NOT deserve to have that job. It is your moral obligation as a citizen to try to fight for these people.
Imagine if that were your mother or father standing there day after day with NO ASSISTANCE.
Dear Editor
Like the lady before me, she said how disgraceful it is to treat the elderly & disabled pensioners with no compassion or dignity. The money we receive is unlivable with inflation, groceries and petrol going up. It does not even cover utilities.
Dear Editor
It is not only Soshanguve but also Temba Jubilee Hospital and the SASSA office. If you want to leave early or get help, you have to be up as early as 3:30.
Dear Editor
I find Sassa staff extremely rude and unprofessional. I was in a queue for 3 hours outside in the cold. I went in and waited 5 hours with no communication from anyone.
If you dare ask a question, they shout at you and tell you to sit down and wait. There is no water, the toilets are filthy, there are continuous IT problems, and clients are not informed thereof.
They have 3 counters open with over 200 people waiting to be helped. I found it absolutely ghastly.
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