The agency will spend not more than R3.6 million for the rolling out of the required infrastructure at various sites countrywide.
THE SOUTH African Social Security Agency (Sassa) will pilot a ticketing system to manage queues at its 18 offices across the country in this financial year.
Cape Town – Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu said the agency will spend between R170,000 to R200,000 per site for the rolling out of the required infrastructure at the various sites.
The planned initiative forms part of other online systems measures that would see beneficiaries making bookings to limit accessing the premises.
She revealed this when she was responding in writing to parliamentary questions from DA MP Alexandra Abrahams, who asked about the development of a new queue management system her department announced in April 2022.
Abrahams enquired how the new queue management system will function and the date envisaged to be implemented.
She also wanted to know about the costs involved and how the new system was expected to solve the ongoing queue crisis and prevent beneficiaries from sleeping over outside Sassa offices.
In her written reply, Zulu said there would be a ticketing system, which would identify the services that an applicant would like to access.
She said a person would then able to sit anywhere in the office and wait for his or her ticket number to be called.
“This will do away with the current process where queues are managed through shifting positions on chairs, resulting in people being too scared to leave their chair they are sitting on, in fear of losing their place in the queue.
“It will also prevent those who take advantage of people queuing by selling them priority places in the queue,” Zulu said.
Zulu said the pilot was expected to be to the tune of not more than R3.6 million.
“The cost is estimated to be between R170,000 to R200,000 per site for rolling out the required infrastructure. This will vary depending on the size and layout of the application sites,” she said.
Zulu pointed out that the new queue management system was not directly intended to address the overcrowding of offices and the need to access the queues early.
“Sassa is currently also considering and piloting various online systems, which will reduce demand for accessing the physical premises and to allocate time slots or bookings to applicants,” she said.
Cape Times
