Pretoria - The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa)’s Durban District office hasn’t paid its rent for more than five years and owes the municipality more than R6 million, GroundUp reported on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Northern Cape’s Ritchie Local Office has not paid rent for 10 years, said the online publication in its report.
According to GroundUp Sassa listed at least 19 offices which had outstanding rent bills, of which seven were in KwaZulu-Natal.
Sassa told GroundUp that it had since only paid the rent to some of these offices.
The publication cited Sassa spokesperson Paseka Letsatsi saying delays with municipalities issuing invoices or sending the wrong invoices had caused the payment challenges.
“Despite sending monthly reminders to municipalities, there is often no response,” he was quoted as saying.
The state agency told the publication that despite the non-payment of rent, the offices were still in full operation.
Earlier, on Tuesday, Sassa reacted swiftly to assure its beneficiaries that the gold payment card was still valid to avoid panic after fake news circulated about them.
The social relief grant agency called for beneficiaries not to panic or succumb to the hijacking by scammers circulating fake news claiming the card will expire in April.
“Sassa will in due course communicate changes if there are any. Fraudsters who pretend to be Sassa officials and target old age people and people living with disability in their residence must be immediately reported to the local police,“ Letsatsi said.
IOL