2 February 2001
The attention of the KwaZulu Natal Province of the South African Communist Party (SACP) has been drawn to the fate of African pensioners who were due to receive their state welfare pension grants in Pietermaritz Street pay-point in Pietermaritzburg yesterd ay.
According to many of the pensioners, the pay-point was closed at 11h15 without any cogent explanation whilst many pensioners were still queuing to be paid. Officials from the Department of Welfare who were running this pay-point chased pensioners away and were also rudely asking the pensioners why they did not wake up earlier to get their pensions. They were also telling the pensioners that the January payment will only be paid at the beginning of March. Given the endemic corruption in the pension payout sy stem, which has denied millions of pensioners throughout the country timely payments, dignity and respect, we doubt that this will be the case.
The SACP in KwaZulu Natal condemns this incident which reminds us of the continuing degrading treatment African pensioners receive when they collect their state pensions. This incident means that thousands of mouths will go hungry for another month, with t he possibility that the unpaid grant for January will not even be paid at the beginning of March.
African pensioners are still the only ones who have to wake up early to stand in long, unsheltered and unsafe queues in order to get their state pension grants. All other pensioners receive their grants either through private bank accounts or through the s tate-owned Postbank.
This pension payout system is discriminatory, outdated, inefficient, barbaric and an affront on the dignity of the African elderly and black people as a whole.
The SACP calls on the Department of Welfare in KwaZulu Natal to ensure that the Pietermaritzburg pensioners receive their payments without any delay. We call on the Department to fully investigate the Pietermaritzburg incident and that those officials resp onsible are brought to book.
The SACP calls for a complete overhaul of the state pension payout system for African pensioners. This complete overhaul must also review the outsourcing of the pension payout system to private companies with the intention to consolidate the Postbank as th e main pay-point for state pensions.
CONTACT Smiso Nkwanyana SACP KwaZulu Natal Provincial Secretary Cell 082 468 7184
OR
Mazibuko K. Jara
Department of Media, Information and Publicity
South African Communist Party
Tel 011 339 3621
Cell 083 651 0271
Fax 011 339 4244
Email sacp1@wn.apc.org