The SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) has introduced a system at Dora Nginza Hospital that makes it much easier for mothers to register their newborns for a child grant.
It will allow new moms to register their babies without setting a foot outside the Zwide hospital.
The official launch of the system on Monday came after the agency noticed a gap in social grant applications for children under the age of one.
The new Sassa registration site at the hospital is a collaboration with the department of home affairs to ensure newborns are registered and able to obtain birth certificates.
Sassa provincial spokesperson Tabisa Nondwayi-Mayaba said when the agency analysed its report on the child grant, it picked up that there were a number of children eligible for grants but, for some reason, only children over one were being registered.
“The question is what happens with these children until they turn one?
“So we [said] we wanted to close that gap,” she said.
“We are now driving to launch more fixed registration sites at hospitals.
“Parents can also visit any Sassa [office] to register their child if they are eligible for a grant.”
Nondwayi-Mayaba said six sites had been opened across the province.
“We launched these sites as a way of trying to support what the government is doing, because the government is trying to reduce the level of poverty.
“We are doing this by making a point that these children below the age of one are eligible to access the grant.
“Surely that is going to have an impact as far as poverty reduction is concerned.”
With an average of 8,000 deliveries a year taking place at Dora Nginza, Anele Zokufa, manager in the office of the chief executive, said they needed to find ways to bridge the gap in ensuring children under one were not left behind and were getting their grants.
“We noticed that there was a bit of a rise in malnutrition in some areas, hence we had to have the discussion with Sassa,” Zokufa said.
“Sassa [officials] said they had certain indicators they needed to meet and were not meeting the zero to one year olds.
“This made it a good idea to come to Dora.
“Dora is a tertiary hospital of obstetrics and gynaecology in the western region of the Eastern Cape so all these mothers with complications come to Dora.
“Some ... don’t get social grants because the mothers don’t want to go to home affairs as some don’t have IDs, some don’t know how to go about doing it, they don’t want to stand in queues, and some don’t have money to travel to home affairs.
“We’re proud because babies need a lot of things and will be helped by this money [which would have been spent on transport costs].
“Some babies don’t drink breast milk so, for us, this is a positive step and we know babies will have something in their tummies.”
Thulethu Booi of Motherwell, who gave birth via C-section on Friday, said she could now leave the hospital with the Sassa registration completed, which was a big help.
“In the past, if we were already home, we would have had to wake up early to go queue.
“Then, when you’re there, you find your documents are incomplete and you are turned away and must return again, all the while carrying a newborn,” she said.
Phumeza Jacob, also from Motherwell, welcomed the new system.
“Now I won’t have to go through the stress of having to make sure I have taxi fare to get to an office not knowing if I’ll even receive help that day,” she said.
HeraldLIVE
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