Sassa spokesperson Paseka Letsatsi says response teams were dispatched to deal with the problem. "There is no one who can say whatever we are observing is good, we need to make sure that we put more of our work staff and we need to make sure that we put more effort to ensure that the most vulnerable are protected.

Hence the decision that we took to say, we need to start with those disability grants and older person grants and our thing is that we need to make sure that people don't have to wait too long to get their money", said Paseka Letsatsi.

He says the agency will do more to educate people, especially the elderly, about other means of payment they can access to receive grant money. "There are multiple forms of payment, in which we think our beneficiaries should take advantage of them.

Beneficiaries can get their grant from the post office, at the merchant and they can also get their grant at any bank of their choice", he added. Sassa says it will do more to educate people, especially the elderly, about other means of payment they can access to receive grant money.

Last month President Cyril Ramaphosa announced an increase in grants to alleviate the plight of the vulnerable during the lockdown.