SASSA - But a Tip of the Rock.

 

We started visiting a sick family member in Eerste River mid August. During one such visit a family member mentioned how he needed to get up at 3am the next morning to take someone to join the que at the local SASSA office sort out her child grant. My immediate question was why. The answer came back if you want to get helped this is what needs to be done. Otherwise you will never get what you need. I than found out there is a nightly camp that pops up of people coming there as "early" as 6pm on the night before to be first in line the next morning. The kicker is there was no guarantee you would come away with any measure of success.

Our visits to the family became an almost daily event. The SASSA thing popped in the conversation every time. The stories took on a different spin every time. I found the need to capture this on camera grew every time we visited. So after checking out the lay of the land on one or two trips home I figured out how to get the shot. Anyway, I got my shot on December 1 at about 22h30. 

I came home and plastered the picture across social media. It caught lots of attention and lots of reaction. A submission to Groundup eventually the got the desired result. They would investigate and do a story and use my picture. That was mid December. 

Two days ago, January 11,  I got a message from a TV journalist friend wanting to know what the situation was out in Eerste River. I had not been out there for weeks so I did not know if anything had changed. Yesterday pictures started popping up all over of people been locked out at Eerste River that had been waiting there for hours to renew grant applications. Similar pictures started appearing of people at the Bellville office. This morning more pictures of people that had camped overnight in Bonteheuwel appeared on line. Groundup is of now carrying stories of people suffering the same fate in Kwazulu Natal. 

I primarily follow the news on line. I am "connected" with a number of journalist on social media. So I feed my addiction from what I believe is good stuff. As such I have a pretty good idea of how the news cycle works. At the moment there are not a lot of powerful human interest stories happening. The daily updates of the Covid stats has become something of personal significance after been part of the statistic. The numbers have also taken on names so yes, it's become personal. Yet for me watching the news is no longer a priority. There simply is no news of interest. 

This SASSA story is in my opinion a big one. It shows the sheer magnitude of the failure of government to take care of the most vulnerable in society. The people affected have very little if anything. For them the desperate need to put food on the table and take care of basic needs means if having to sleep on a pavement to meet those needs than that is what will have to be done. Yet in a matter of hours that desperate story of people facing the ultimate humiliation will fade into the background of the news cycle. Their story will be "breaking news" today and gone tomorrow, replaced by the ongoing story of corruption been told to us by Zondo. 

Stories like SASSA and other stories of how our government is failing it's people every single day will not stop. They will always be there. Unless a way is found for these stories to remain at the fore front and for government to be shown the extent of there failure nothing will be done. Than again, even if they are exposed for what they are, their arrogance off course will enable them to ignore the plight of the people and carry on regardless. Stories like SASSA will carry on because they simply do not care.    
 

 

 

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