Beneficiaries sleep on cardboard outside the Soshanguve office

Pensioners say they have to queue from 2am to access services at the office of the SA Social Security Agency (SASSA) in Soshanguve, Tshwane.

When GroundUp visited the office on Thursday, 14 May, we found long queues. Beneficiaries, including old people, said they sleep outside the building on blankets and cardboard boxes until security guards open the building at 7am.

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Solomon Shabalala, 65, said he had been trying to get an old-age grant since June 2025.

"I've been struggling to pay rent and buy groceries since I stopped working," he said.

Motsatsi Mothipa was at the office to accompany her 92-year-old mother, Melita, who wanted to make enquiries about her old-age grant and a foster-care grant she receives for the care of her nephew. "We've been coming here for the fifth time without getting assisted, my mom is using crutches, she can't walk long distances," said Motsatsi Mothipa.

Spokesperson Paseka Letsatsi said SASSA had a queue management system. Old age grant beneficiaries were scheduled to come to the Soshanguve office only on Mondays and Wednesdays, and child support grant beneficiaries on Tuesdays and Thursdays. But Shabalala said he had specifically been told to come on a Thursday.

Letsatsi said there were two parts to the Soshanguve office: a main office and a disability unit.

"Elderly people who come to the disability side usually come for a Grant in Aid. Clients are mostly on crutches and wheelchairs and are frail." He said these clients were prioritised, followed by beneficiaries of the Care Dependency Grant and then of the Disability Grant.