Over a hundred people stood in a long queue on Monday outside the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) office in Khayelitsha on the first day for medical bookings and appointments.
- People with disabilities, some on crutches or in wheelchairs, many elderly, waited in a long line outside SASSA’s office in Khayelitsha on Monday.
- It was the first day of the year that disability grant applicants could make medical bookings.
- People near the front said they had either slept there or arrived as early as 3am.
- Activists from Freedom to the Forgotten, an organisation that promotes the rights of people with disabilities, are calling on SASSA to open another office in the area.
Over a hundred people with disabilities, many elderly, waited in a long line on Monday outside the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) in Khayelitsha. Some had spent the night there to be first in line for help. It was the first day for beneficiariesto make medical bookings for a Disability Grant.
People in the front, said they had either slept there or arrived as early as 3am. Most people in line said they arrived around from 6am onwards.
By 8am, the snaking queue went down the road to the Kuyasa train station, more than a kilometre away. Some people were still sleeping on the pavement or in their cars; others were packing up their blankets.
The people in line were current disability grant recipients and first time applicants.
Liliswa Jebese, from Level Two informal settlement in Khayelitsha, arrived at about 7am. Jebese says she has severe asthma and a knee injury from a car accident a few years ago. She was granted a six-month disability grant last year which ended in December.
“I was here in December but while standing in the queue which was as long as this, I collapsed. I also started suffering from chest pains and I did not have my asthma pump.”
“I am here again, and I don’t know if I will be helped because I am far back in the queue,” said Jebese, holding on tightly to a plastic bag with her medical documents.
Informal vendors sold chicken feet, apples, sweets and cookies to people in line, some of whom said they had not eaten breakfast despite being on chronic medication.
“As much as it is the first day for medical bookings and appointments, the queue at this branch is always like this. It is always long, people are always sleeping over,” said activist Sibongiseni Faku, from Freedom to the Forgotten, an organisation that promotes the rights of people with disabilities.
“When is government going to do something about this situation? We are constantly fighting for this, reaching out to the ministers, to the relevant parties, but our cries fall on deaf ears,” said Faku.
“Why can’t another branch be opened in Khayelitsha to meet the demand? Maybe mobile offices that can help? Why can’t the government come up with a plan to at least feed the people in these queues because many people leave home without having eaten anything,” Faku said.
One woman, who did not want to be named, approached this reporter visibly upset. “I slept here last night, as dangerous as it is,” she said.
“I have epilepsy. I almost got attacked last night after I argued with some of the people who wanted to remove me from my spot in the line.” T
She said some people pay up to R100 to secure spots in the queue.
In February last year, GroundUp reported on the same issues at this branch, where people complained about long queues.
SASSA’s response will be included once received.
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Widow Curio
The Man who could only Drink Milk
I know an old man who had lived a life full of adventure, but his health started to catch up with him. He\’d run the Boston Marathon, was an avid surfer, and climbed Everest, but he\’d started to have abdominal pains around his 85th birthday and went to see a doctor. Sadly, he ultimately was diagnosed with a rare degenerative liver disease that slowly made him allergic to everything he ate.
He kept copious notes, and as an avid gastronomist slowly grew to despair as everything he\’d spent his life enjoying became something he could no longer eat. Alcohol went first, then mushrooms, then bread, then root vegetables, then coffee, one at a time he had to remove them from his diet. The doctor was clear: if he kept eating something his liver rejected the autoimmune response would be quick and severe, and would lead to a painful death. Little by little, everything was taken away as an option, until the only thing that remained was milk.
In some ways, this actually made life easier, because the mental strain of remembering what he could and couldn\’t eat was gone, but then so was the joy in variety. But he took it in stride, and got his own cow and took classes from a farmer to learn everything he could about the only thing that could give him sustenance. And even within milk, he could still have yogurt, butter, cream, some cheeses, and other milk-derived products he hadn\’t fully rejected yet, so it wasn\’t all bad. But then one day a few months later he felt the pain again, and he knew cow\’s milk was no longer an option.
Lacking other options, he tried goat\’s milk, and he was delighted that it worked! The protein structure is just different enough that his body still tolerated it. That bought him another month. And that\’s when we came up with a wonderful plan to go on one last grand adventure around the world. If he could get one month of life out of the milk of every mammal, he\’d actually have a few more years to enjoy life to the fullest and see the world in all its beauty. Each month, we\’d pick a place with a new mammal, and he would immerse himself fully with the locals, learn all the ways to prepare the milk, and just enjoy the hand he had been dealt as much as he could.
We milked sheep in New Zealand. Camels in Egypt. Zebras in South Africa. Giant bats in Indonesia. Do you know how many Peruvian cuy you need to milk to get a single glass? I do. Even as his health slowly faded, he stayed cheerful, and I felt lucky to join him on the adventure of a lifetime. That brings us to today when he got to the very end of his spreadsheet, and declared that he was now allergic to every mammal. He\’d enjoyed his journey, but his time had come to an end, for there was nothing left to milk.
To which I said nonsense, I bet we can milk a few thousand karma out of this post.
Crazy Eights
Lekker – great / tasty [lack-err] An Afrikaans word that has multiple meanings and which can be used in various contexts to describe many things from people to food to inanimate objects. It is used to convey the meaning of great, delicious, nice or fun. Make sure to roll the ‘r’ when pronouncing the word.Example: “That new movie is lekker!” / “That bunny chow was lekker!” / “I’m lekker, bru!”