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The delegation of investigators from Harare met residents and other stakeholders in Old Magwegwe where residents demanded transparency in the administration of the funds.
The residents and stakeholders as citizens and voters from whom the Government derives its mandate to govern the country are justified to demand openness in the manner the grants are being handled. The social grants are public funds and every effort must be made to ensure the money benefits the intended beneficiaries and not to line the pockets of the undeserving people.
Yesterday we reported that residents and stakeholders were complaining that the social grants are benefiting people with sources of income, some of them commuter omnibus owners. It is also worrying that prospective beneficiaries are being asked to pay between R5 and $2 to have their applications processed. The elderly and disabled beneficiaries were also reportedly being charged collection fees by those they asked to collect their grants on their behalf.
Government is paying monthly grants of between $10 and $25 to assist the vulnerable groups. The funding is availed by the Government under the Harmonised Social Cash Transfer Scheme and targets about 300 000 economically disadvantaged households country-wide. The programme is a timely and noble social safety net but the allegations of abuse, if proved to be true, are defeating the purpose the scheme was established for.
Since independence in 1980 the Government has come up with several commendable programmes to help people but some of them have been dogged by corruption either by officials administering the programmes or by people who are not supposed to benefit.
Early this year the Ministry of Housing and Social Amenities came under scrutiny after revelations that it allocated flats to undeserving people, including children, under the Willowvale Phase 2 scheme in Harare.
The flats were meant for civil servants and the underprivileged but some people who benefited told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Public Works and National Housing that they paid up to $10 000 to be allocated the flats.
The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Public Works and National Housing was probing the allocation of the flats following reports that undeserving people ended up benefiting.
During its investigation the committee was told that some of the beneficiaries already owned several other properties in the capital yet one of the conditions to qualify was that one should not have a house in Harare.
The allocation rules also stated that a percentage of the flats were supposed to be allocated to civil servants while the rest should have gone to vulnerable groups.
But the Parliamentary Committee discovered that no underprivileged people were allocated flats while some were not on the Harare City Council waiting list. It is important for the Government to follow the laid down criteria in selecting people who are supposed to get State assistance. We eagerly await the outcome of the probe by the Ministry of Labour and Social Services and hope that those found to be on the wrong side of the law would be made to answer for their misdemeanours.
Online Reporter