By David Masango

POTENTIAL social grants beneficiaries and those experiencing problems with their grants in the Eastern Cape should be on the receiving end of better services, following the award of certificates to governmental staff members who have undergone tertiary training.

On Saturday, 24 April, 39 Eastern Cape Department of Social Development staff graduates will be awarded certificates in social security and 27 will receive under-graduate diplomas in social security labour relations at the University of Fort Hare in Alice.

Department spokesperson Gcobani Maswana said the graduates were involved in processing social grant applications. "The department decided to engage on a programme of professionalising social security after numerous complaints (of) lack of customer care from disgruntled clients," he added.

The initiative is a partnership between the government, the Rand Afrikaans University and the University of Fort Hare.

"There were cases where some of the staff took in applications that did not contain all requirements, for example, and this resulted in delays and sometimes the rejections of applications," he said.

However, he said the training of officials would ensure that the department ended up with a system that provided excellent customer care.

In order to complement this programme, Total SA has trained managers in strategic leadership skills.

"In this, the 10th year of democracy, we can never again allow older persons, people with disabilities, our mothers, care givers and children to be ill-treated and disadvantaged because of customer dissatisfaction," said social development MEC Neo Moerane-Mamase, who noted that there were over 1.8-million beneficiaries in the social security section alone.

"As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the International Year of Families, the department has targeted to register 244 000 for child support grants, as well as the registration of foster care grants due to the high prevalence of HIV and Aids," the department said.
- BuaNews