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It is trite to debate the effects of SASSA’s weaknesses and failures on vulnerable people. 

When people without financial safety nets struggle to access the money they depend on in order to eat, some of us may choose to look away but we all know that the physical and emotional impacts can only be horrendous. 

SASSA is the responsibility of national government. Its performance negatively impacts vulnerable citizens across the country, including in the Western Cape.

It makes more sense for us to debate what we should be doing – which we have the powers to do – to reduce unemployment and dependency on SASSA.

If the DA is concerned about the most vulnerable people in the Western Cape there are a few practical things it could do to alleviate their plight.

1. Recognise the links between under-education, unemployment and poverty, and shelve plans to cut teachers’ posts when we are already short of teachers. 

This is simply achievable through re-ordering your spending priorities.

2. Recognise the links between under-serviced communities, poor education outcomes and crime. Put more effort and resources into changing the conditions in neighbourhoods that have created environments in which gangsterism is endemic, and stop regarding them as normal.

3. Instead of closing down facilities like the B.E.S.T. College in Salt River, which supports vulnerable and traumatised children from poor communities to rise back to their feet and contribute positively to society, prioritise keeping it open, putting more social workers on the street, more rehabilitation facilities – more interventions to support better-developed youth. 

Finally, the most obvious reflection of the Western Cape’s commitment to its most vulnerable citizens would be for the government to advocate for the introduction of a Basic Income Grant, because poverty isn’t magically going to go away.

While yesterday’s marginally improved unemployment statistics provided a glimmer of hope, 42% of working age citizens (active job-seekers and those discouraged from seeking work) remain jobless. 

Combining this statistic with the anaemic economic growth forecast for the next few years indicates that inequality and poverty are going to increase. 

Of course, SASSA must pull up its socks. So, too, must this beautiful province demonstrate that it truly gives a damn about poverty. 

Issued by Brett Herron, GOOD: Secretary-General & Member of the Western Cape Parliament