Pension & Children's Grant regarding SABC Broadcast on Special Assignment; National Laboratory Service Amendment Bill:Briefing

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Meeting report

SOCIAL SERVICES SELECT COMMITTEE
11 September 2001
PENSION & CHILDREN'S GRANT REGARDING SABC BROADCAST ON SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT: BRIEFING; NATIONAL LABORATORY SERVICE AMENDMENT BILL: BRIEFING


Chairperson: Mr L. Jacobus

Relevant Documents
National Laboratory Service Amendment Bill [B56-2001]
Home Affairs Department Report on Re-registration project (Appendix 1)
Social Development Department Report on Social Grants in Eastern Cape (Appendix 2)
Social Development Department Report on Shoot-Out Incident at Kwa Thema (Appendix 3)
Social Development Department Report on Social Assistance Programmes

SUMMARY
The Departments of Social Development, Home Affairs and the MEC for Health in the Eastern Cape responded to the SABC 'Special Assignment' documentary, which depicted the suffering of pensioners and children in graphic terms.

The Deputy Director General of Health addressed the Committee on the National Laboratory Service Amendment Bill.

MINUTES
The Department of Social Development informed the Committee that following the screening of the SABC Special Assignment report on the plight of children in the Mt. Frere district, the Minister had ordered a full investigation into the matter with a view to taking necessary urgent remedial measures.

The Minister also visited the area on 16 August 2001 to personally appraise himself of the situation on the ground. A task team consisting of Home Affairs officials, Hospital managers in Mt. Frere hospital, and Social Development officials was set up which met and held discussions on the 16 and 17 August.

It was noted that while the hospital at Frere offers nutritional support within the hospital environment, the children who are then discharged do not get any support in their home or community and thus relapse into malnutrition.

The Video Report
The SABC video footage report displayed in graphic terms the dire straits pensioners go through to access social security benefits. Most of the pensioners complained that they have not been able to access payment for months because the system has been changed and that they were required to re-register.

The pensioners complained that the change came too suddenly without their prior information.

They also complained bitterly that the registration process was tedious, bureaucratic and expensive for them to afford. Those in the far-flung rural areas in particular were badly hit since Home Affairs do not have facilities there.

One pensioner said that she could not afford the sum of R50 to take her to the nearest registration centre situated at Umtata. Another pensioner had submitted all the necessary documentation but the bureaucratic red tape had kept her waiting for a long period of time.

Changing focus, another video footage covered the alarming cases of severe malnutrition among children at the Mt. Frere Hospital. It was shown that cases of infant mortality had shot up rapidly due to preventable cases of malnutrition.

It was reported that the hospital is crammed with children at various stages of debilitating illnesses. These children, the report noted, come from homes that are ravaged by abject poverty. Most of the children qualify for child support but their parents, most of them grandmothers, do not know how to go about accessing such benefits.

Response to the Video Footage
After screening the video footage, the Chair asked representatives of the departments to respond to queries raised in the footage before members could comment.

Department of Home Affairs
Mr D Mamabolo, Director: Identity card documentation, informed the Committee that in 1997 Cabinet instructed the National Department of Welfare to initiate a campaign for re-registration of social grant beneficiaries. The campaign was an attempt to solve the problem of millions of rands that were lost though fraudulent social grants pay-out. To complete the re-registration process his department was assisted by the Department of Welfare to identify the genuine beneficiaries through finger print verification. At the end of the process his Department returned the results to the Department of Welfare for updating of its social grant beneficiaries database.

Mr Mamabolo noted that where beneficiaries were without the identity documents, the mobile teams collected identity document applications. These applications were kept separate from the normal ID application and were handled as priority cases at the Department’s head office. The documents were processed and posted to the closed point usually where the applicant had applied and at which point they could collect the identity document. Where his Department’s attention was drawn to problems, action was swiftly taken and the relevant application was processed and immediately dispatched to the Department of Welfare. As for those problems which his Department could not attend to, such were returned to Welfare with a detailed request on how to attend to the particular problem.

Department of Social Development
Mr Makiwane, the Director: Social Grants, acknowledged that his Department is responsible for the payment of social grants to children, the elderly and people with disabilities. Despite some significant increases in social grant beneficiaries, evidence shows that the current number of beneficiaries is a small fraction of the total number of eligible individuals. Concrete follow-up measures had been taken following the SABC Special Assignment report. The Minister himself had visited the area and interacted with all the relevant stakeholders.

Mr Makiwane said that Special Assignment reported an increase in the number of admissions of children with severe or chronic malnutrition problems. The children are from all over the district indicating that the whole area is under a heavy cloud of poverty. There was a serious problem of poor co-ordination and integration of programmes between the Departments of Social Development, Home Affairs and Health in providing complementary services to which the children are entitled to in terms of the legal and constitutional obligations.

Other areas of weakness are: poor follow-up from the Health Department, poor access to Child Support Grant and other social benefits, lack of ID for caregivers. There is a lack of birth certificates for children to access the Child Support Grant, lack of capacity by the Department of Home Affairs to process the IDs, and general lack of poverty support for poor individuals who are not entitled to social grants.

An integrated task team had been set up to deal with all reported cases and to facilitate access to the child support grant. The task team is composed of representatives from Social Development, Health and Home Affairs. The task team identified all reported cases and is ensuring that the affected care givers and children have the necessary IDs and birth certificates, as the case may be, and that children are captured into the system to receive the child support grant benefit.

Department of Health
Dr. S H Khotu, Director: National Health Information Systems, pointed out that the second video footage on child malnutrition was grossly exaggerated. He, however, acknowledged that there were insufficient resources in the Eastern Cape to address the burning issues of equity. He presented the Committee with figures, which showed marginal improvement in death system and birth registration process the later having moved up from the initial 20% to 60%.

Dr. Khotu noted that the collaborative efforts by his department and that of Home affairs had led to the introduction of mobile registration service at health centres in those areas that are inaccessible. The collaborative action plan that has been mooted and now in high gear implementation will go a long way to alleviate the problem highlighted in the video footage.

Discussion
The Chair asked what had become of the measures that had been promised to create a one-stop shop for the beneficiaries in these far-flung rural areas.

Mr Makiwane replied that the long-term plan is to move away from the stop gap intervention method. There was a need to move at policy level so that there is proper co-ordination between stakeholders and that proposals are being put forward in this regard.

The Chair acknowledged this deficiency and pointed out that networking was central to the success the social grant programme especially in the deep rural areas.

Mr Van Jaarsveld (NP) asked whether there was any departmental collaboration on IT and whether upon the introduction of the smart card people will have to re-register again.

Mr Mamabolo replied that his department hopes to harness registration around the smart card. He added that the relevant department are keen to collaborate in the IT area once resources are made available.

Ms Vilakazi (IFP) asked if there was a system of monitoring the performance of service providers.

Mr Makiwane replied that the various provinces that have contracted these facilities with service providers conduct such monitoring.

Mr Qokweni said that something needs to be done about the poor attitude of civil servants that service pensions.

The Chair agreed with this observation and asked that some action be taken to address this perennial problem.

The Chair summarised the issues raised for members so that follow-up discussions can find ways and means of intervention. The issues were:
-Mobilisation of resources especially with Home Affairs
-Revisit policies that target the vulnerable
-Decentralise Home Affairs operation to reach the deep rural areas
-Inter-sectoral collaboration
-Introduction of mobile service stations
-Networking in and within the Departments needs to be improved
- IT collaboration in various Department

National Laboratory Service Amendment Bill
Deputy Director Department of Health
Dr.Kamy Chetty, the Deputy Director General addressed the Committee. She said that the Bill seeks to amend the National Health Laboratory Service Act, 2000 (Act No. 37 of 2000) by inserting provisions in the Act that will enable employees who are currently employed by bodies that are to be replaced to two pension schemes, the pension scheme to be established by the Service or the Government Employment Pension Fund ("the Fund").

Dr.Chetty said that the Act was passed by Parliament in 2000. The Act seeks to replace the following bodies with a single public health sector.
(a)South African Institute for Medical Research
(b)National Institute for Virology
(c)National Centre for Occupation Health
(d)forensic chemistry laboratories owned by the senate; and
(e)all provincial health laboratory services

During the negotiations for the transfer of persons currently employed by the bodies referred to in paragraph (a) to (e) to the Service, it became clear that some of the employees would like to remain members of the Fund. They did not want to be transferred to a pension scheme to be established by the service.

The Department of Health was also advised that unless provision is made in law for a person to remain a member of the Fund while that person is no longer employed by the State, the Fund is not obliged to accept continued membership. The Fund may, therefore, terminate membership and thereby prejudice the person financially.

Dr. Kamy clarified that the Bill seeks to provide pension options for persons currently employed by bodies that were referred to earlier. She said that provision this is made by adding item 8 to the Schedule that provides for transitional provisions.

She said that provision to be added provides for the employees of the bodies to be replaced by the service to belong to-
-a pension scheme other than the Fund, must transfer to a pension scheme to be established by the Service
-the Fund, may choose to become dormant members or remain active members of the Fund or transfer to a pension scheme to be established by the Service

The Bill has no direct financial implications for the State and that all relevant stakeholders had been consulted and consented to the amendment.

Discussion
Ms Vilakazi asked what the reason for the inclusion of the clause was to which Adv. Sivhaga from the Department replied that during debate on the main Bill members had asked that this item be included.

The meeting was adjourned.

Appendix 1
DEPARTMENTS OF WELFARE AND HOME AFFAIRS
SOCIAL GRANT BENEFICIARIES RE-REGISTRATION PROJECT

BACKGROUND AND STATISTICS
During 1997 Cabinet instructed the National Department of Welfare to initiate a campaign for the re-registration of Social grant beneficiaries. The campaign was an attempt to solve the problem of millions of rands being lost due to fraudulent Social grant payouts made because of discrepancies in the Department of Welfare's beneficiary database. According to Cabinet's instruction it became compulsory for Social grant beneficiaries to be in possession of 13-digit bar-coded RSA Identity Documents before payouts can be made.

To complete the re-registration of beneficiaries the Department of Home Affairs assisted the Department of Welfare with the identification of beneficiaries through fingerprint verification. The reasons for the Department of Home Affairs' involvement was twofold as Cabinet also instructed the Department of Home Affairs that Social grant beneficiaries must be the first group of citizens that will receive the new Identity Cards when it was completed.

During 1999 the campaign was put into full swing with the Department of Home Affairs Regional and District offices allocating mobile units consisting of Home Affairs officers and fingerprint taking equipment to collect fingerprints and photographs of Social grant beneficiaries at Welfare pay points. The fingerprints were forwarded to the Department of Home Affairs head office for verification against the existing fingerprint records. After this process was completed the Department of Home Affairs returned the results to the Department of Welfare for the updating of its Social grant beneficiaries database.

When Social grant beneficiaries were not in possession of Identity Documents, the mobile teams collected Identity Document applications. These applications were kept separate from the normal Identity Document applications and were handled as priority cases at the Department of Home Affairs head office. The documents were processed and posted to the closest point usually where the applicant applied where he could collect his Identity Document.

The problems experienced by the Department of Home Affairs are as follows:

· The applicant's fingerprints differ from the fingerprints on the original records.
· A full set of 10 fingerprints is required for record purposes. The applicant has been identified, as the holder of an old Reference Book, a Blue Identity Document or no physical record exists for the applicant.
· Identity Number provided on the application is incorrect.
· There are no fingerprints on the application form.
· The Identity Number on the application is marked as a deceased person on the Population Register.
· Application was submitted in duplicate. (Two applications received from the Department of Welfare for the one beneficiary.)
· The fingerprints are unclear and not usable or identifiable by the Department of Home Affairs.
· The applicant's particulars quoted on the application form differ from that registered on the Population Register.
· The applicant's surname differs from that registered on the Population Register.
· No particulars of the applicant were provided on the application.
· The Identity Number quoted by the applicant does not exist on the Population Register.
· The fingerprints were incorrectly taken. The form provides for fingerprints to be taken in specific areas on the form.
· Applicant is identified as an Illegal Alien.

Where the Department of Home Affairs could attend to the problems the correct actions were taken to solve the problems and ensure that the applications were returned to the Department of Welfare as rapidly as possible. Any problems that the Department of Home Affairs could not attend to were returned to the Department of Welfare with detailed requests on how to attend to the problem.

Funding for the campaign was provided by the Department of Welfare including the expenditure incurred by the Department of Home Affairs' mobile teams and the additional contract workers appointed by the Department of Home Affairs to ensure the rapid finalising of the campaign applications.

EASTERN CAPE
The onus of registering the birth of a child lies on the parent. Clinics and hospitals act as assistant registrars of birth but can only do so if the necessary information of the mother is available. If the mother does not have an Identity Number available the clinics and hospitals usually attach the Notice of Birth to the infant's clinic card. It is the parent's responsibility to ensure that the Notice of Birth is completed and submitted to the Department of Home Affairs for processing.

Concurrent with the 1999 campaign for the re-registration of Social grant beneficiaries several provinces including the Eastern Cape concentrated on registration the births of infants that qualify for the Child Support Grants. The campaign lasted for one month as financial constraints restricted the continuance of the campaign. For the duration of this campaign 9 729 birth registrations were received for children between the ages of 0 and 7 years.

During June 1997, shortly after the Cabinet instruction, a meeting was held between the
Department of Home Affairs head office and representatives of the Provincial Department of
Welfare from the Eastern Cape. The purpose of this meeting was to establish the foundation for a process where Identity Document applications were collected with pension applications.
After the establishment of the correct procedures the Department of Home Affairs head office received a total of 17 745 Identity Document applications between January and March 1998. These applications were processed and the Identity Documents were collected by the Department of Welfare. The influx of applications stopped during March 1998 and to date no explanation or reasons were supplied to the Department of Home Affairs as to why the process has been stopped.

Shortly before the 1999 General Elections the Department of Home Affairs Regional Directors allocated mobile teams for the taking in of applications. The Regional Director for the Eastern Cape recognised the need for the service and allocated thirty-seven mobile units for the collection of Birth Certificate applications at his own discretion The Department of Welfare originally allocated ten mobile units to the Eastern Cape region but it proved that ten mobile teams were not sufficient to cater for the scope of the campaign. For the duration of the 1999 campaign 10 103 Social grant beneficiary applications were collected.

Since the completion of the 1999 campaign the Department of Home Affairs in the Eastern Cape has made every attempt possible to ensure that Birth Certificates and Identity Documents are issued without problems but several factors impede this process.

Firstly, as recently reported in the media Home Affairs offices are under stocked with regard to equipment and basic requirements such as telephones and fax machines. This problem is currently under scrutiny and the specific office mentioned in the media has been attended to. Factors that limit the upgrading of Department of Home Affairs offices in the Eastern Cape are budgetary constraints and the physical location of the offices. The Department of Public Works in the Eastern Cape has allocated a contract for the upgrading of the power supply in the mentioned office and the contractor is currently busy with the upgrading.

The Mount Frere District office and its Service points that are currently without adequate power supply and do have a shortage of equipment as well as do not have network access to the Population Register forward all the applications to the Umtata Regional office. The Umtata office works on a two-week cycle to ensure that all the applications are handled within an acceptable timeframe. The two-week cycle consists of the Umtata office capturing and printing Birth Certificate applications from the Mt. Frere District office and Service points for the first two weeks of the month. Then the Mt. Frere District vehicle distributes the Birth certificates. This could take another two weeks, as there is only one vehicle and the Service points in the Mt. Frere District are several hundred kilometres apart. This cycle ensures that all Birth Certificate applications received from the Mt. Frere District and Service points are processed and distributed within a period of one month.

The Departments of Welfare and Home Affairs in the Eastern Cape have been working on a joint effort with regards to mobile teams since 1997. Four mobile teams consisting of Home Affairs as well as Welfare officers are currently active in the Mt. Frere and Tabankullu Districts in the Eastern Cape. The Department of Welfare identifies areas where there is a need for enabling documents such as Identity Documents and Birth Certificates. Welfare then contacts Home Affairs to dispatch a mobile team to the area for the collection of applications.

Depending on the availability of funds and vehicles the mobile teams will visit the earmarked areas for the collection of applications. The mobile teams immediately after visiting an area transport the applications to the Umtata office for capturing and processing the same day. The Birth Certificates are distributed the next day to ensure service delivery. This process places an enormous strain on the Region's funds as officers have to remunerated for the overtime worked as well as the costs for the maintenance of the vehicles and equipment.

Due to the availability of funds in the Eastern Cape region any initiatives other than what was mentioned previously can unfortunately not be entertained. An alternative that can be suggested, subject to the availability of funds on the side of the Department of Welfare, is as follows: the Director-General of the Department of Home Affairs is at liberty to grant a person or institution permission to collect Identity Document applications on behalf of the Department of Home Affairs. To further alleviate the lack of enabling documents in all the provinces but especially the Eastern Cape such permission could be obtained from the Department of Home Affairs Director-General and the Department of Home Affairs could provide the Department of Welfare's officers with training in the taking of fingerprints and the collection of applications. This will enable the Department of Welfare to collect Identity Document applications in areas where they identify the need and thus alleviating the current financial and political pressures on the Department of Home Affairs.

Appendix 2
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
BRIEFING TO THE NCOP SELECT COMMITTEE ON PROBLEMS OF ACCESS TO SOCIAL GRANTS IN THE EASTERN CAPE PROVINCE.
11 SEPTEMBER 2001

1. BACKGROUND
The Department of Social Development is responsible for the payment of social grants to children, the elderly and people with disabilities. Each month provincial Social Development departments distribute approximately RI, 7 billion to almost 3.8 million beneficiaries. Thus social security represents the government's primary investment in poverty alleviation.

The Eastern Cape province is currently paying grants to about 769 970 beneficiaries.
The number of beneficiaries per grant type are indicated as follows: Old Age Pension (397511), War Veterans (826), Disability (147 836), Care Dependency Grants (6 849), Foster Care Grant (12 228) and Child Support Grant (199 720).

Despite some significant increases in social grant beneficiaries, evidence shows that the current number of beneficiaries is a small fraction of the total number of eligible individuals. According to current estimates, the number of potential child support grant recipients is 792981. (NBC 2001)

2. SABC SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT REPORT
Following the screening of the SABC report (Special Assignment), which highlighted the plight of children in the Mt Frere district, the Minister of Social Development sent a high level delegation of Senior Managers, from the National and Provincial departments, to investigate the matter and take the necessary steps to rectify the situation. The Minister of Social Development also visited the area on 16 August 2001 to personally appraise himself of the situation on the ground. The Minister visited and interacted with all the relevant stakeholders' i.e. MP's, Local Councillors, Health and hospital managers, and Community members, Officials from Home Affairs, Education, Minerals and Energy, Faith Based Organisations and researchers.

The Task Team met and held discussions on 16 and 17 August with Home Affairs Officials, Hospital Managers in Mt. Frere Hospital, and Social Development Officials working in the Region.

3. FORMULATION OF THE PROBLEM
3.1 The Mary Theresa hospital, where the Special Assignment was captured on film, is reporting an increase in the number of admissions of children with severe or chronic malnutrition problems.

These children are from all over the district indicating that the whole district has major problems of poverty. The following table shows the admissions, discharges and deaths of malnourished children in Mary Theresa Hospital.
[PMG Editor's Note: Graphs not included]

3.2 While the hospital offers nutrition support within the hospital environment the Children who are discharged do not get any support in their home or community environment thus resulting in relapses. The most shocking issue is the high mortality rate of these admitted children, which implies that they come to hospital too late.

3.3 The national task team identified the following critical weaknesses in social support of needy children (as exemplified by the Mt Frere case)

3.4 Poor co-ordination and integration of programmes between Social Development, Heath and Home Affairs in providing complimentary services to which the children are entitled to in terms of the legal and constitutional obligations
3.4.1 Poor follow-up from the Health Department;
3.4.2 Poor access to Child Support Grant and other social benefits;
3.4.3 Lack of ID for caregivers;
3.4.4 Lack of birth certificates for children to access the Child Support Grant; and
3.4.5 General lack of poverty support for poor individuals who are not entitled to Social grants. Lack of capacity of the Department of Home Affairs to process ID's

4. DISCUSSION
4 1 In addressing the needs of children the constitutional and legal obligations must be taken into account Section 28(10) of the Constitution deals specifically with the fundamental rights of children. Unlike other socio-economic fundamental rights that grant a right of access," subject to progressive realisation by the State within its available resources. The rights pertaining to children do not have such limitations. The special vulnerability of children and their protection is in this way recognised. Section 28 grants children inter alia the right to the following core issues:
4.1.1 To basic nutrition, shelter, health care services and social services
4. 1.2 To be protected from maltreatment, neglect, abuse or degradation

In all matters concerning children, the child's best interests are of paramount importance (section 18(2)). The special constitutional protection, alongside other more general forms of social protection available to children informs the recommendations made in this report.

5. STRATEGIES BEING IMPLEMENTED TO ADDRESS THE PROBLEMS
The following interventions are being implemented by the Province to address the above
Issues:

5.1 Immediate Intervention - Support to affected children
(For three month period from the week of the 20~ August 2001)

An integrated task team has been set up to deal with all reported cases and to facilitate access to the child support grant. The task team is composed of representatives from Social Development, Health and Home Affairs.

The task team is identifying all reported cases and ensuring that the affected care givers and children have the necessary ID's and or birth certificates, as the case may be, and that children are captured into the system to receive the child support grant benefit.

5.2 Immediate intervention- strengthening of the process design of the referral System of the Department of Health
Strengthening of the referral system of Health. That is from day ~ of admission caregivers are referred to social workers and home affairs to acquire ID documents and birth certificates as well as integration into the Poverty Relief food production programme.

5.3 Short-Medium term interventions in Mt Frere district
(Short term 3 months medium term 6-12 months/long term MTEF)
The National Department has made available around R2 Million for immediate social relief to affected families estimated at 250 households. This complements the already initiated program by the province. The relief is in the form of food parcels at R250.00 per parcel/voucher to be distributed for affected families. (R1 million) The other I million is targeted towards food production projects (flagship type of projects).

Secondly, the Department of Home Affairs has started with the registration process of all potential beneficiaries in the Mt. Frere district. The Department of Home affairs is working closely with Social Development Officials to ensure that individuals who have the necessary documents and are eligible for social grants are immediately captured into the system.

5.4 Medium to long-term interventions
The whole province has a low coverage rate of the child support grant uptake yet it is the poorest province. There is a need for a concerted effort within the province to
market the grants and ensure that these services are properly budgeted for. Both the Home affairs and the Social Development capacity need to be attended to.

Appendix 3
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
REPORT TO THE NCOP SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE SHOOT-OUT INCIDENT AT KWA THEMA - 6th JULY 2001

Purpose
To provide the NCOP Select Committee with a briefing on the shooting incident that occurred at a pension pay point in Kwa Thema, Gauteng on the 6th July 2001 which is based on provincial reports and an in loco inspection by the Chief Director, Mr Jehoma from the National Department on the same day.

The report is relatively brief as further details are not known. The South African police investigation has not been completed. Once completed there would be conclusive evidence as to exactly what happened and who was responsible.

Background
The security around paypoints throughout the country has been cause for concern due to the risk of handling large sums of money at any given time , the increased number of robberies, lack of appropriate security at some paypoints and more importantly the risk and impact these robberies have on the beneficiaries.

With specific reference to Gauteng, the contractor ie. ALLPAY is responsible for the security at all paypoints in the province. This includes the inspection and surveillance at paypoints prior to the commencement of payment. ALLPAY is also responsible for the provision of consistent presence of guards on site on payment days and for the training of security guards in keeping with the Security Officers Board. These requirements are all contained in the service level agreement between the province and ALLPAY.

The performance of the service provider is monitored and reviewed by the province.

Cognisance must also be taken of the fact that the venues used as paypoints are owned by third parties other than the Department or contractor, limiting the liability to guarantee security at all times.

The Incident
Even though a sweeper checked the paypoint hall prior to the money being taken inside, robbers had managed to conceal themselves in the hall.
Robbers assaulted the security guard whilst within the hall from the back. They escaped through doors which are always padlocked but on this occasion found to be without padlocks. Whilst driving off they shot in the direction of the beneficiaries and killed a 70 year old pensioner, Mrs Lettie Kganye. The pensioner was caught in a cross fire". It is unknown at this stage whether they were firing because they were tired at by the security guards or they initiated it.

It is estimated in excess of R 1 million was stolen.

Recommendations
Based on the above it is recommended that:
· The police investigation be expedited to ensure that the offenders are appropriately dealth with
· The province should reconsider the safety of this paypoint as well as all other paypoints. In this regard the province had a meeting in August between the Gauteng MEC for Social Services and the Executive committee of ALLPAY to explore strategies to enhance security at these points. A meeting is being arranged with the MEC for Safety and Liaison to explore this matter further.
· The proposed norms and standards for paypoints should be implemented
· Fencing of paypoints
· Security guards must have had training accreditation from the Security Board
· Security guards must ensure they are visible and must cover all angles
· Number of beneficiaries at each paypoint should not exceed 1000 per day to
Ensure appropriate management of them especially in crisis times
· Accessible/decentralised paypoints
· The payment contractors must improve security at paypoints, as well as consider
the rotation of security regularly.

[Editor's Note: Diagrams not included)

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