
Image: MIKE HUTCHINGS
The public protector says her office has been inundated with Covid-19 related complaints about alleged misconduct and service delivery failures.
Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s office said there had been a surge in the number of complaints related to the pandemic, with service-failure allegations accounting for the lion’s share of the grievances over the past four months.
Mkhwebane said on Monday that about 450 people had complained about what they deemed to be unreasonable grounds for declining their applications for the R350-a-month special social relief of distress grant.
The grant was announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in April for the unemployed who did not already receive any other social grant or Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) benefits.
“In most cases, the complainants either allege that they were not provided with reasons as to why their applications were unsuccessful or that the applications were declined on the basis that the applicants were found to be recipients of some form of income, or that they qualified for UIF, which they disputed,” she said.
Mkhwebane revealed that her office was also investigating alleged irregularities in the awarding of a quarantine camp tender in Mpumalanga.