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By Anita Dangazele
- The 73-year-old woman from Gqeberha supports four grandchildren and three unemployed adult children using only social grants and borrowed money.
- Black Sash research shows unregistered lenders target grant recipients with illegal interest rates of between 30% and 100% per month.
A 73-year-old woman from Gqeberha says she has no choice but to borrow money from loan sharks to feed her family.
She lives with four grandchildren and three adult children who are all unemployed. The household survives on social grants.
She says the grants are not enough to support everyone.
“Things are especially difficult because the social grant is not meant to support an entire family, it’s meant to meet the needs of one person but because jobs are scarce as grandparents we end up being the breadwinners in our homes when our children should be the ones to provide for us now,” she said.
She says high food prices force her to borrow.
“Because food is expensive we have no choice but to borrow money,” she said.
The woman says she previously borrowed from a loan shark in her township. She says the lender took her bank card and identity book.
“I used to borrow from a loan shark in the township, who would take away my bank card and my ID. I hated that very much and now I come here to town, at least here they don’t take my card away, they only deduct what I owe them,” she said.
She says borrowing has become a cycle. Once money is deducted, she must borrow again.
“It has become a cycle but I am comfortable with that, as long as I don’t have to give them my ID and bank cards,” she said.
She says she feels let down by promises from the past.
“When we voted for democracy, we thought there would be jobs for our children but now things are even worse. I never thought at my age, I would still be taking care of my children,” she said.
Research by Black Sash shows unregistered money lenders target SASSA grant recipients. Some keep grant cards and withdraw money at month end.
Black Sash says elderly people face illegal interest rates of between 30% and 100% per month. Many are forced to hand over identity books as security.
Many grant recipients cannot get bank loans. This leaves them with loan sharks who control how they use their grants.
Pictured above: Elderly people queuing up for their SASSA grants.
Image source: Supplied
