The CISJ has made the following submission in regard to the Social Assistance Act Regulations.
The gist of the CSJ submission is that we welcome the amendments and commend the government for seeking to close current gaps in the regulation of the payment of social assistance grants, which enable fraud and corruption while undermining proficient and responsive service delivery to those in need. We do caution though that in closing impropriety gaps, opportunities for treating poor people poorly, should not be expanded. We also register a constraint we had in assessing the regulations in the absence of purpose stipulation by way of a memorandum as used to be the case in the past. Our recommendations are this:
- In the absence of a purpose clarifying memorandum, the public has no benchmark to assess whether the regulations do address the mischief sought to be addressed and where there potential deleterious unintended consequences for vulnerable groups in violation of social justice, it is difficult to propose alternative solutions that could address the mischief in question.
- We note the move from online/ electronic tools and caution that should not be at the expense of the accessibility that online services tend to offer particularly in emergency situations though noting the gross inequality of access to digital services in our country, particularly among those that have been historically denied social assistance and other services on the ground of race and disability.
- We also seek clarity on what the Independent Tribunal will be replaced with, what or who will be the referee for the applicants.
- On the Final List, we recommend that local authorities should not have the final say, especially in a disaster as this can lead to corruption. We recommend giving the signing off to social workers, possibly hiring local social workers and they do the recommendations with the assistance of the community health care workers, they may do this with the consultation of local and provincial authorities.
- We also recommend that the amendments be publicized through posters, media, and social media in all official languages, braille and sign languages included. Training for the front row SASSA staff to better advise the public on the amendments is also highly recommended.