Social development minister reaches out and promises to attend to a desperate community’s problems

Community members in Delft, Cape Town, on Thursday told an outreach programme there was an urgent need for increased social welfare funding and another social development office in the suburb.

Residents — some carrying babies, others chasing toddlers and some in wheelchairs — crammed into the Roosendaal High School hall to hear from Social Development Minister Nokuzola Sisisi Tolashe and the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) at the outreach programme.

Delft is bedevilled by high crime rates — 18-year-old Bronwin van Willing was killed on Wednesday evening, some 750m away from where the outreach took place. Other big issues in Delft are poverty, joblessness and rampant gangsterism.

This morning, Social Development Minister Sisi Tolashe is in Delft, Cape Town for a community outreach- in an area that faces high rates of crime, social ills and poverty. Sassa is also on hand to assist residents who require help. @dailymaverick pic.twitter.com/5ynSTDGXDa

— Suné Payne (@SunePayne) January 9, 2025

Social Development Minister Sisi Tolashe. (Photo: Suné Payne)

On Thursday morning, about 200 people were in the school hall to hear from the minister, while Sassa officials in classrooms assisted residents. Local councillor Michelle Adonis described the outreach as the “first of its kind”.

Three speakers took the podium to talk about living in Delft.

First up was Reginald Hills, a member of a neighbourhood watch organisation in Delft and the representative of a community organisation. He said, “Teenage pregnancies … are a major concern within our areas, in our schools.”

In Delft, he said, “Gangsterism is [rampant] due to poverty, due to a lack of services” and a lack of facilities for young people.

Reginald Hill. (Photo: Suné Payne)

He decried the fact that people from Delft had to queue at a Sassa office in Bellville, 12km away, to apply for social grants and get assistance with their applications.  As reported in GroundUp, people sleep outside the Bellville offices so they can be helped the following morning.

He said elderly people risked their lives waiting outside the Sassa offices from 2am to receive their social grant payments.

“We [are] begging you to open your door wide for us and give us service,” he said.

The second speaker, Sheia Vusi, assists vulnerable groups, including the elderly, women and children. She spoke of struggles with the Sassa office in Delft, citing the example of a 35-year-old man who has been battling since 2017 to get identification documents and social grants for his two younger siblings after his mother died and left them in his care.

The man had spent countless hours at the Sassa office, but: “As I am talking to you now ... the issues are still not resolved”. Despite the promises of social workers to contact the man, “they never call”.

Sheila Vusi. (Photo: Suné Payne)

More social development offices needed

The location of the social development office in Delft is another issue for the community.

“People have to walk a long distance [or] take taxis to get there; when you get to the taxi rank, you have to walk again. Before you even reach there you get robbed, you lose your cellphone or you can be hit by a bullet,” said Vusi.

Delft needed another Sassa office, she said. “We always talk about mobile offices, that would be a good idea.”

Tolashe said she would meet with the public works ministry to try to find other buildings from which Sassa could operate. However, she pointed out that there were limited buildings available to Sassa in the Western Cape, particularly after the pandemic. “Even where we were, after Covid, we were not allowed to go back.”

Vusi said there were no safe and comfortable spaces at the local Sassa office for women and children to discuss their problems. She said the office cubicles were so close to each other that people could hear if someone was talking about being raped or abused.

“The person next to you is listening, is sitting there, so I don’t have privacy.”

Community leader Andiswa Tsengiwe told Tolashe that although the Sassa budget was tight “you must just try to make a plan”, referring to how much money each grant recipient gets.

Andiswa Tsengiwe. (Photo: Suné Payne)

Parents must be responsible for their children

In her response, Tolashe said: “So, the first thing that I must relate — and that one is not negotiable — is that parents must take responsibility and families must be families and nothing else. I am not going to be a government that looks after your seven-year-old, your eight-, nine-, ten-, 15- and 16-year-olds. Those are your children, look after them.”

She was applauded when she said grant money should be spent on children and not alcohol.

She pleaded with teenage girls not to fall pregnant and not to get into transactional sexual relationships with men who could leave them pregnant or with sexually transmitted diseases.

She asked families to teach their children about the dangers of alcohol and having babies before they were ready, adding that she would return by the end of February with solutions to issues that had been raised.

Afterwards, Tolashe told Daily Maverick she had visited Delft “because of the growth of the population” and the lack of shelters and services for people.

Commenting on Tolashe’s remarks and promise to return by the end of February, resident Gadija Francis said: “We just hope this is not going to be a talk show.” DM