COVID-19: Sassa receives over 3.5 million applications for R350 grant in less than a week

The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) on Thursday said over 3.5 million COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress grant applications had been received in less than a week.

On Wednesday, the agency said it was battling with heavy traffic on its website as thousands of people had been applying for the R350 grant.

Sassa said on Tuesday night, over 5,000 people were applying per minute on the website and slowed down the system.

Since applications opened on Friday last week, more platforms were added due to the high number of people applying on the website.

People can be assisted on WhatsApp, the Govchat app, Chatbot, and Facebook Messenger.

Sassa spokesperson Paseka Letsatsi said: “Compared to the first time when the R350 COVID-19 grant was opened last year, we had about 800,000 applications. But this time around, we had more than 3.5 million applications. Applications will be open until the end of August. People do not have to panic.”

-EWN

In other news – Shock as Mzansi realizes something else about Mpura

As SA continues to mourn the tragic loss of Amapiano star Mpura, many have been shocked to discover that the hitmaker had rebranded to join the Amapiano fraternity and that he led an interesting life outside making music.

Mpura, real name Mongezi Stuurman, died in a fatal car accident on Saturday with five others in a head-on collision on their way to a gig in Rustenburg. Learn More