Grant fumble: When askies is not enough
More than 600 000 pensioners had to battle to obtain their monthly social grant after a computer “glitch”.
It is shameful how often the most vulnerable in our society are at the receiving end of government incompetency and heartless individuals.
Last week more than 600 000 pensioners didn’t receive their monthly payments. In the hope of convincing us that it couldn’t have been prevented and that no one was to blame, government insisted that it was “a computer glitch due to a new payment method”.
Desperate to receive the tiny amount that keeps them (and often several children) alive, pensioners had to borrow money to make repeated futile visits to their points of payment. Those who couldn’t afford it, waited overnight in the cold without any food or water.
In most countries this would be seen as a national embarrassment and the president would address the nation, whilst pulling resources from all over to assist. Of course, this is not how our politicians operate. After being called by parliament to account, the relevant ministers blamed “the glitch” and made the usual formalistic apology to those affected. No assurances were given that it won’t happen again and there was no attempt to make some form of restitution.
This whole saga was cruel and totally unacceptable.
Political and administrative heads should roll and the government must have the decency to give all pensioners a once off R300 bonus to make up for all those taxi fares that have left many indebted with loan sharks.
Of course, it is not just government who tramples on the vulnerable in our society.
Still fuming with anger about the pension chaos, I watched the Carte Blanche report on Zuko Nonxuba on Sunday. For months, Masa Kekana and the team did some phenomenal investigative journalism after they became aware of allegations that Zuko Nonxuba had claimed around R600 million rands on behalf of clients for medical negligence from the Department of Health since 2014.
Tirelessly, Masa searched for these clients, many who live in remote parts of the Transkei.
Most of the claims were made on behalf of children who suffer from cerebral palsy, because of oxygen deprivation at birth. The resulting brain damage left these little children totally dependent on caretakers and in need of regular medical treatments.
In village after village, Masa found mothers or grandmothers in abject poverty looking after these desperately ill children. According to her reports, none of them were aware of the multi-million payouts that the state had made to them. Whilst many of them had not received a cent – others said that they had to phone Mr. Nonxuba, who would give them between R1000 and R5000 at a time. Unaware of the R21 million that was awarded to her one woman said that when she told Mr. Nonxuba that the R5000 he had given her that month was not enough, he accused her of “loving money too much”.
From these reports, it is clear that Mr. Nonxuba not only neglected to tell the families about the payouts but also kept the money. I can’t imagine anything more despicable than withholding or taking money that was supposed to have helped vulnerable and sick children.
I find it baffling that Mr. Noxuba has not been arrested. Even if all the money is still in his trust fund (which I doubt), he was under an obligation to pay it out – which according to reports he didn’t do for almost a decade.
What infuriates me even more is the callous inaction by those who were meant to have stopped this.
The Legal Practice Council (LPC) is the statutory body responsible for overseeing those in the legal profession. Yet, despite complaints from the Special Investigating Unit as well as the Western and Eastern Cape health departments, as far back as 2018, the then Law Society (the LPC's predecessor) took years to take action.
After the initial complaints, in 2019 the Western Cape High Court ordered the LPC to investigate the matter. A year later, the LPC released a damning report on Mr. Noxuba but took no disciplinary action. Only after Carte Blanche’s first expose three years later was Mr. Noxuba finally suspended in April of this year. In the meantime, he kept practicing as an attorney and presumably claimed more money.
He appealed his suspension, but on 3 August the court finally ruled against him and he was finally scrapped from the roll - thus prohibiting him from practicing as an attorney.
It also turns out that the LPC has had control of Noxuba’s R101 million strong trust fund for the last three years. Yet, no effort had been made to get any of that money to the children. Spokesperson for the LPC, Kabelo Letebele, claimed that they could not have done anything until the court case had been finalised, but as Masa pointed out, in such urgent cases the courts could have been approached to allow for some of the money to be released.
Clearly, nobody cared enough to make the effort.
Worryingly, Letebele also indicated that they must now first investigate who has legitimate claims before they can do any payouts. He wouldn’t commit to any time frames.
This is a horrific story that shows the worst of humanity and should leave no one untouched. During the Carte Blanche story, Masa told one of the women who had not received any money that she should have received R21 million. The woman’s startled reaction moved Masa close to tears and all she could do was to say “Askies, Askies!” to console her.
I wept for all of them.
I hope Mr. Noxuba rots in jail for the rest of his life. There should be a special place in hell for people like him. Shame also on all at the LPC and Law Society that could have done something about this and didn’t. If those who are there now have any shred of humanity in them, they should work day and night to ensure that these children get what they are owed immediately.
To all the children, their brave carers, as well as the pensioners of this country, like Masa I want to say: “I’m so sorry, for how you were failed by those who were supposed to have protected you.”
You deserve so much better.