President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation and introduced the nationwide lockdown which was scheduled to begin on Thursday the 26th of March 2020, and as a result many South Africans lost their jobs due to the bad economy. All the citizens had to obey the Level 5 lockdown regulations. A month later Mr Ramaphosa mentioned that unemployed individuals can apply for the Social Relief Development (SRD) grant on the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) website, and successful applicants would receive R350 monthly. Millions of the Mzansi nation applied for the grant, but unfortunately at the end of April 2021 the last payments had to be made. Individuals had to appeal for their applications after they had been denied at the end of May 2021. SASSA promised all individuals that the outstanding amounts will be paid to all the applicants. Some civil society organisations requested that the SRD grant should be increased from R350 to R585, after Mr Tokyo Sexwale publicly mentioned in an interview that the President might have utilised the SRD grant money for personal reasons which might explain why the payments are being delayed, on the contrary the rage of applicants grows every millisecond. Earlier this week the SASSA branch at the KwaZulu-Natal province mentioned the fact that the number of break-ins at different Post Offices the day before social grants are paid has escalated, however individuals feel as if the government does not make decisions which benefit everyone in the country, because the unemployment rate has shot up to thirty-two point six percent of the population which has a bad impact on the crime rate as well. Individuals try to steal things that others have worked so hard for by being selfish in order for them to survive with their families during these hard times. In closing, SASSA as an organisation has warned applicants for other grants earlier this week to inform them that they should be on alert for card skimmers who request for cards in streets or homes to be duplicated, because the organisation has reassured all the applicants that the staff is not allowed to visit applicants at their homes and to make the system more efficient during the pandemic new applicants can apply for all the grants on the website without going to the agency personally with documents to avoid long queues. For interest sake to all the readers of this article…Do you think that the continuation of the Social Relief Development grant will decrease the chances of the youth to search for employment or to think of other ways to make an honest living in order for them to support their families until the pandemic comes to an end?
What a time to be alive
