More than 3.5 million people apply for R350 relief grant
The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) says it is experiencing enormous pressure as more than 3.5 million people have applied for the Covid-19 Social Relief Fund grant in less than a week. This is almost four times the previous number, which was 800 000.
This week, according to Sassa over 5,000 people were applying per minute on the website.
Due to the high number of people applying on the website, more channels were, including the Govtchat app and Facebook Messenger.
Sassa spokesperson Paseka Letsatsi said: “Compared to the first time when the R350 COVID-19 grant was opened last year, we had about 800,000 applications. But this time around, we had more than 3.5 million applications. Applications will be open until the end of August.
