SA pensioners die waiting for grant payouts

Two pensioners in South Africa died on Monday as they were hoping to collect money from the government in the form of social grants.

One reportedly died as they were waiting in a queue in Hammersdale, a suburb of Durban, and the other died in a taxi en route to a cash machine in the settlement of Pimville, close to Johannesburg.

Neither has been named by the authorities.

“We express our deepest and heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of the departed,” Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu was quoted by the Daily Sun as saying.

She ordered their payments to be processed immediately “without any delays”.

South Africa is currently under a three-week lockdown as the authorities battle the spread of coronavirus which has so far infected more than 1,300 people, and caused three deaths.

BBC