11 June 2003
The South African Communist Party (SACP) joins the Minister of Social Development, Minister Zola Skweyiya, in mourning the death of the pensioner who died in bitter cold waiting in a pension pay-out queue outside Umtata in the early hours of this morning. The death of this pensioner should be a reminder about the continuing degrading treatment that black pensioners receive when they collect their state pensions.
Black 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 state-owned Postbank.
This death is also an indictment on the privatisation and outsourcing of the state pension pay-out system. The privatised pension pay-out system continues to reinforce discrimination, is outdated, inefficient, barbaric and an affront on the dignity of the elderly. The SACP calls on government to stop using the privatised pension pay-out system and to ensure that Postbank, as a publicly owned bank with a wide network, is consolidated and capacitated to be the main outlet for pension pay-outs and other social security grants. This would also ensure that a significant number of South Africans have access to affordable banking services.
However this does not exempt private commercial banks. Part of the reason the majority of pensioners do not use banks for their pensions is the exorbitant bank charges levied by all private commercial banks whose only interest is to maximise profits without any regard for social development. For this reason, the SACP calls for the cancellation of all bank charges on all recipients of social security grants.
As the 2002 Red October campaign discovered, there are still too many other problems in our social security system. There are often huge problems for poor people when trying to apply for social security – they do not have IDs, there are massive delays in many Home Affairs Departments, the process is cumbersome, they are treated rudely by officials; Medical certificates for disability grants sometimes appear to be refused on an arbitrary basis; and so on.
For all these reasons, the SACP reiterates its call for a complete overhaul of the state pension pay-out and social security systems. The SACP will continue working with the Minister of Social Development, government and communities in this regard.
CONTACT Mazibuko K. Jara (surname Jara) Department of Media, Information and Publicity South African Communist Party Tel 011 339 3621; Cell 072 275 4723 (temporary), Fax 011 339 4244 Email mazibuko@sacp.org.za