R370 a month, 20km to the SASSA office – Northern Cape man’s reality
· The South African
A Northern Cape man knows what it means to make R370 disappear before the month is out, and unemployment isn’t making it any easier.
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The man in his late forties supports between three and five dependants on the Social Relief of Distress grant. The R370 payment goes straight to food, and it’s never enough. By month end, he says there’s nothing left in his account. For the past one to three years, this grant has been his household’s main source of income, even though it was designed as short-term relief.
Distance adds to the burden
Getting help isn’t simple either. He must travel more than 20 kilometres to reach his nearest SASSA office, a trip that eats into an already stretched budget. In a province as vast as the Northern Cape, that distance also limits job opportunities, keeping residents locked into a cycle they can’t easily break.
Despite having completed matric and skills in construction and general labour, he remains unemployed and actively job hunting in a region where positions are scarce to begin with.
What SASSA could do differently?
He rates his overall SASSA experience as adequate. His payments are deposited directly into his bank account, and he’s had no issues with the application process itself. But he says he wasn’t aware of any other support programmes that might help ease the strain, a gap that could be quietly limiting his household’s options.
Asked what single change would make the biggest difference, his answer was simple: increase the grant amount. At R370 a month, the SRD grant hasn’t kept up with rising food prices, let alone transport costs or the price of searching for work. For him and millions like him nationally, the grant remains a lifeline, just one that’s stretched dangerously thin.
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