Thousands of Masiphumelele residents were given temporary ID’s and Sassa cards in order to obtain their grants.
|||Cape Town - Thousands of Masiphumelele residents were given temporary ID and South African Social Services Agency (Sassa) payment cards Wednesday in order for them to obtain their monthly grants.
Their houses, possessions and documents were destroyed in a fire that swept through the settlement early on Sunday.
The Department of Home Affairs and Sassa handed out the documentation for free.
Many of the residents are unemployed and depend on state grants.
Sassa Western Cape regional head Waldie Terblanche said the agency issued the cards based on the list drawn up by City of Cape Town officials.
Home Affairs provincial manager Yusuf Simons said his department was working with Sassa by issuing IDs.
Terblanche said Sassa cards were issued immediately.
“We are trying our utmost best to assist. People are coming in numbers to be reissued with the cards.”
Simons said there was a team of Home Affairs officials assisting beneficiaries.
“They don’t have to pay for the service because we regard what happened in their area as a disaster.”
Nonathi Dodo, 42, who lost all her possessions in the fire, said she was relieved that her card had been replaced so that she could “get money to care for her children and grandchildren”.
Were it not for the mobile offices, she said, she would have had to wait another month to access her grant fund.
Mayco member for human settlements Benedicta van Minnen said the City was co-ordinating the humanitarian relief efforts. Donations are being made to the SA Red Cross Society and Living Hope Church.
Van Minnen said the City was still clearing the site.
“More than half of the site has been cleared already. The site will then be demarcated and divided into large blocks, which will allow for partial, above-ground reblocking and the preparation of wide fire breaks to ease access for emergency vehicles,” she said.
The emergency kits will be delivered on site and issued to the affected households as soon as the site has been prepared.
sandiso.phaliso@inl.co.za
@PhalisoSandiso
Cape Times
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