Pretoria — The Department of Social Development and the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) has extended their deepest condolences to the family of a 90-year-old woman who passed away at the SASSA office in Choseng village in Greater Taung Municipality.

Timie du Plooy had gone to re-register for her Old Age Grant when a pension committee member noticed that there was something wrong with her and alerted her son, who realised upon checking her that she was not breathing.

The SASSA officials on site alerted the police and emergency personnel, who confirmed that she had passed on.

Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini has reassured all frail and older persons and their families that SASSA officials will re-register them for their grants in the comfort of their homes.

"The welfare of our senior citizens remains our primary concern. At the beginning of this [re-registration] process, I instructed SASSA officials to ensure that persons over the age of 75 years and those who are frail are treated with the utmost respect.

"That is why we took this decision to re-register them in their own homes," Dlamini said.

SASSA had scheduled to conduct home visits in the Greater Taung Municipality area today.

Dlamini further reassured older persons and their families that if they were not re-registered yet, they would still continue to receive their Old Age Grant because the deadline for the discontinuation of the re-registration process has not been announced.

"SASSA will reach out to all areas to ensure that no older person is left out of the process and we appeal to all to spread this message," urged Dlamini.

As part of the campaign to eliminate fraud and corruption in the social grant system, SASSA has since April 2012 embarked on a process to re-register all social grant beneficiaries.

At the beginning of this process Dlamini announced that SASSA would conduct home visits for the purpose of re-registering beneficiaries over 75 years of age and bedridden beneficiaries in hospitals and other institutions where they are being cared for.