Question NW1494 to the Minister of Social Development
08 June 2022 - NW1494
Marais, Ms P to ask the Minister of Social Development
What (a) total number of sign language interpreters are employed in the SA Social Security Agency (SASSA) in each province and (b) recent intervention measures have been put in place to assist persons at SASSA pay points who are hearing impaired?
Reply:
a) A total of 350 staff members were trained as sign language interpreters by the Enterprise University of Pretoria over a period of 12 months, through SASSA in 2017.
Of these, 330 are still employed by SASSA. The discrepancy of 20 is as a result of staff who have either left the employ of SASSA, or passed away. The breakdown per province, is indicated in the table below:
|
REGION/PROVINCE |
TOTAL NUMBER OF TRAINED OFFICIALS |
TOTAL NUMBER OF OFFICIALS STILL IN THE ESTABLISHMENT |
|
Eastern Cape |
23 |
21 |
|
Western Cape |
23 |
23 |
|
Northern Cape |
22 |
22 |
|
Mpumalanga |
29 |
27 |
|
North West |
60 |
56 |
|
Gauteng |
74 |
72 |
|
Limpopo |
41 |
37 |
|
Free State |
34 |
34 |
|
Kwa-Zulu Natal |
44 |
38 |
|
TOTAL |
350 |
330 |
b) Where possible, the staff trained as sign language interpreters are deployed to front offices and pay points to assist. However, in areas where these staff are not available, other measures, such as communicating in writing to the citizens, are employed.