Pensioners of South Africa (Posa) has called a nationwide picket for September 7, targeting Sassa offices across the country between 12:00 and 14:00, to demand that government raise the Older Persons Grant from its current R2 400 per month to R5 000.
The action places direct pressure on the institutions responsible for setting and administering social grant levels. Posa frames the demonstration as a formal assertion of democratic participation, one that holds decision-makers accountable for what the organisation describes as an inadequate and undignified level of state support for elderly citizens. The question at the centre of the picket is straightforward: who in government is responsible for ensuring that the grant keeps pace with the cost of living, and what mandate compels them to act?
The financial arithmetic is stark. Brian Alcock, a pensioner from Cape Town, laid out the competing demands on the R2 400 monthly payment. “It is difficult to survive on R2 400,” Alcock said, explaining that after purchasing food, little money remains for electricity, water, accommodation, transport and medicine. He argued that the current grant structure violates pensioners’ human rights, given that social security is a fundamental need. “A lot of us have been working for most of our lives. We helped build this country. We have worked and slaved for this country. They are giving us nothing back in return. We are saying enough is enough.”
Meanwhile, in Durban, Selwyn Anderson pointed to a different dimension of the policy failure: rising utility tariffs are pushing elderly people into financial dependence on their adult children. Anderson was direct about what that dependence signals. “We feel like a forgotten community who is only remembered during elections. Pensioners having to picket to get government’s attention is a bad reflection on the country’s leadership.”
The cost pressures are not abstract. Sany van Zyl from Gauteng offered a concrete illustration: a loaf of bread and milk together cost approximately R40. “These are basic food items, and if you add electricity, rent and additional groceries, it is not enough. We need the grant to be reviewed so we can live with dignity,” van Zyl said.
Posa’s statement situates the picket within a broader accountability argument, noting that older persons have spent decades building communities, raising families, contributing to the economy and helping shape the country. The organisation contends that the state’s current response to that contribution falls short of its obligations.
The September 7 demonstration represents a coordinated escalation in advocacy for pension reform. Whether it prompts a formal policy review, or a public response from the ministers and agencies that control grant levels, remains the open question facing government in the days ahead.