Staff Reporter.
The Black Sash has called for the intervention of President Cyril Ramaphosa after police turned a water cannon on social grant applicants queuing outside a SA Social Security Agency office in Cape Town.
The human rights organisation said the use of force — from a vehicle containing Social Development minister Lindiwe Zulu — showed a “shameful and shocking disregard for the human rights of vulnerable beneficiaries, many of whom are disabled and chronically ill.”
Before the water cannon was used to disperse a queue at the Bellville SASSA office — ostensibly to enforce social distancing — Zulu spoke to claimants from the vehicle’s passenger seat, asking them to spread out.
Zulu said that the police had then made the decision to use the water cannon.
SASSA offices nationwide have seen lengthy queues this week, with many people sleeping on the streets to keep their places, after the cancellation on December 31 of temporary disability grants.
In a statement, the Black Sash said the use of a water cannon to enforce social distancing followed SASSA’s failure “to provide an adequate procedure for the reapplication of temporary disability grants including safe spaces, seating and crowd management for compliance protocols”.
It added: “Grant applicants and recipients at Bellville, many of whom are people living with disabilities, were forced to continue waiting while standing soaking wet on a rainy day.
The police deploying the use of force in the presence of the minister of social development is a clear indication that the minister and SASSA have lost control of the current situation.”
Meanwhile, the Western Cape Portfolio Committee on Community Safety condemned the conduct of the police.
Committee chairperson Reagen Allen said, “We seek answers on how it was authorized that police used water canons on elderly and disabled people.”
Black Sash said the violence meted out to manage crowds desperately seeking social security to ward off destitution, hunger and poverty can never be government’s solution.