23 July 2010
Solidarity Helping hand welcomes the fact that the office of the President took action by arranging a meeting between Helping Hand and the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa). Helping Hand discussed various issues regarding service delivery to impoverished whites during talks with Sassa in Pretoria yesterday.
The meeting was arranged after it came to light that a senior Sassa official had claimed that President Zuma did not know what goes on in the budget and that Sassa officials were unaware of white poverty.
According to Dr Danie Langner, executive director of Solidarity Helping Hand, one of the main issues discussed at the meeting was the language issue. “It is simply unacceptable that Afrikaans-speaking people are excluded from service delivery, because the officials are unable to serve them in one of the eleven official languages, namely Afrikaans. Many poor people who apply for grants cannot speak English,” Langner said. Service delivery to the poor is hampered, because forms are not available in Afrikaans and officials cannot serve impoverished whites in Afrikaans, according to Langner. There also appears to be no plan in place to provide services in Afrikaans. “In a recent court ruling, government was instructed to provide services in all the official languages,” Langner said.
“Helping Hand does not receive a government subsidy and can therefore enter into discussions with Sassa about inadequate service delivery as an equal partner,” according to Langner.
During the meeting Helping Hand also expressed concern over Sassa inspectors’ apparent ignorance of white poverty and the lack of a plan for dealing with the growing poverty among whites in Pretoria.
The organisation handed over a report to Sassa representatives, which contains, among other things, case studies of impoverished whites who were refused access to promised government aid. The report, among other things, refers to 70 poor mothers who applied for food coupons during the President’s visit to Bethlehem, a white informal settlement, and who have not received any feedback to date.
“The discussions between Helping Hand and Sassa were very constructive. We intend to hold discussions with them again in the future to ensure that service delivery to impoverished whites improves in the long term,” Langer said.
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